Kingdom Hearts Alternate
by Chatting Airborne
Summary: Xion disappeared years ago, Axel goes on quest to find her for Roxas, Namine is left on her own after Ansem dies, Aerith tries to come to terms with her dark past, and all of them are connected- how, they don't know...Read it!
1. Chapter 1

Roxas sat quietly in the library, reading a book. It was the serene, light moments like this that he lived for. Away from loudmouth Sora, snobby Riku, and Axel- was there a word that would work for Axel on its own. Uncontrollable? Nonsensical? Dangerous? The first word would suit him best, but there was more to him. For one thing, he would lay his lips on anything that could kiss back. First, he'd been eyeing Sora, then he saw Riku, and before all that was Larxene, and he'd had a fling with Marluxia for a while, he had flirted around with Namine, but she was too innocent to sense anything out of the ordinary. And she was kind of awkward. He'd just been introduced to Selphie. Roxas chuckled. She had an even bigger gob than Sora did. How long would Olette and Hayner last? Roxas frowned. He wouldn't let Axel _near _his best friends. There were also Pence, and Seifer and his gang. No one was safe- except for Roxas of course. He and Axel had been friends for so long that their current relationship was pretty much set in stone.

'Wait a minute!' Roxas thought to himself, gripping his book tighter. 'I'm not supposed to be worrying about Axel! I'm supposed to be having a relaxing read at the library!' He chuckled, putting his book up to his nose and inhaling the scent of- **hair gel?**

"HAYNER YOU FREAK!" Roxas barked, throwing the book down and toppling over in his seat. Hayner climbed off the table and bent down over Roxas. He was laughing pretty hard as he helped Roxas up. "If only we had Pence's camera!" he sighed, wiping his eyes off onto his shirt. Olette came up behind Roxas and poked him in the back. "Hey, bookworm. Why are you in here all on your own? You've gotten quieter since last summer- you're almost always 'pondering.'" She finished, reminiscing. Hayner nodded seriously. "I know. You know, you can't hide from your friends. We're always here for you!" he patted Roxas on the shoulder.

"Is this an intervention?" they heard from behind them. Looking around, they all saw Pence peeping out from behind one of the book aisles, trying to look serious. Hayner shook his head. "Stop makin' fun of me, Pence!" he scowled. As Pence and Olette started to laugh, Roxas let out a deep sigh. There was no getting away from anyone these days.

"Come on Roxas, you're coming with us whether you like it or not!" Hayner decided, pulling Roxas by his arm.

"I'm not arguing." Roxas replied. He noticed that Pence had a book on the occult tucked under his arm. "You know, if you seek out stuff like that, you'll find what you're looking for." Roxas said, pointing to Pence's book. Pence looked puzzled for a minute, then he looked down at his book, and the light bulb came on. "Well, let's just say that I'm investigating it, okay?"

"Speaking of which, I wonder about that 'haunted mansion' that we tried to do our summer project on that one time? You said you saw a strange girl in the window, right?" Hayner looked towards Pence, who was nodding his head vigorously.

"Yeah, yeah. I still believe what I saw was real, too. I'm gonna find out more about that girl. And if I happen to see her, I don't really mind. She doesn't seem like a mean ghost, anyway."

Roxas looked back on their last summer, and of meeting Namine for the first time. "Yeah, I bet she's really nice." He said slowly. Wouldn't it be funny when he introduced them? Pence would flip. But then again, if they knew Namine, they'd have to see Sora again- and Riku, too. And they'd also like to see Sora's friends. And if they knew Sora and Riku and Namine, they'd want to find out about organization thirteen. And if they wanted to know about organization thirteen they'd want to know about Axel- which wouldn't necessarily be good for the pride of Hayner or the innocence of Olette. Would Axel go for Pence, too? Roxas started to worry. Why was Axel so prone to romance? And why did he make all his ex's so angry? Roxas groaned.

"Something wrong, old boy?" Pence said in a weird accent, reading through the contents page of his library book. Roxas shook his head. "Nah, nothing's up. I was just thinking about stuff."

Hayner looked back at Roxas. "Well don't think too hard, you'll just end up worrying. Excess thinking turns into worry. Don't do it. It sucks."

"I didn't think that you worried at all, Hayner! If anything, I thought you needed to think a little more rather than you thinking too much!" Pence nudged Hayner. "Am I right, or am I right?"

With that the two boys were off, chasing each other around, dodging behind trees and over park benches. Olette ran after them, occasionally looking back at Roxas to see if he was still behind them.

He wouldn't tell them.

Larxene examined herself in the mirror, making sure every little hair on her head was in the right place. 'I look sharp!' she thought to herself. Then she turned, adjusted her knickers, and walked out of her bedroom. Suddenly, she heard a knock on her door. 'Damn door to door solicitors!' she thought to herself bitterly. Never were they good looking, never did they cease to exist. Never did they stop badgering you to buy products you wouldn't need, or donate money that you could use selfishly. There weren't enough selfish people in the world.

A few more knocks came from the door, and then they rang the doorbell twice. Larxene was getting irritated. "I'm coming, I'm coming already!" she bellowed from halfway up the stairs. She took her time getting to the bottom step, and then she examined herself in the hallway mirror. She looked pretty good. Crossing her fingers, she prayed for a good looking man. "Good looking man, good looking man, good looking man…" she chanted to herself as she opened the front door.

It was…Namine.

"Ha!" she snorted looking her guest up and down. "The little witch has come back to haunt me, eh?" she snarled. Namine looked extremely uncomfortable as she handed a small envelope to Larxene, who snatched it out of her hands before Namine had a chance to explain what it was. Larxene feigned surprise, gaping dramatically as she opened the envelope. "And she brings along a letter for me, too!" She smiled hugely at Namine, who cringed. "Let's read it out loud, shall we?" Larxene gushed, pinching Namine's cheek as hard as she could.

"_Dear honorable Larxene_- getting fancy, are we now? - _I regret to say that as the original guardian of Namine, you have enormous responsibility for this young girl. She is not yet of the age to live on her own, and I cannot support her because, well, I'm only a year older than her-"_

At this, Larxene snorted loudly. "Only a year older than her? What a pushover." She cleared her throat, continuing to read the letter.

"_After you were temporarily incarcerated for conning guests of 'Castle Oblivion' into giving you valuable pieces of information from their past, Namine was adopted by the philosopher and inventor, DiZ, otherwise known as Ansem the Wise. Unfortunately, just a little while ago, Ansem died in one of his own experiments, leaving young Namine to fend for herself. My family took her in for a short time, but my mother threatened going to the police if she couldn't find her own home. She said she couldn't support a young growing girl, like Namine. It did not help when she found out that Namine's original guardians were all sent to jail. So, I beseech you. Please take in Namine again. If you need any help or want any information on her whereabouts up until now, please contact me. My phone number is at the bottom of the page. Thank you, Riku."_

Larxene folded the envelope up and handed it back to Namine. She was still feeling a little suspicious about one little thing. "Hey Namine, how many letters did that kid Riku mail out?" she asked, and Namine shrugged in response, going a deep shade of red. Larxene knew that she was hiding something. "Namine, by any chance did he send thirteen letters, one for each member of organization thirteen? Tell the truth Namine." She leaned in very close to Namine's face, sneering at her. Namine broke under the pressure, nodding. "Give me the letters." Larxene snapped, and Namine gave her all the letters. Larxene reopened the envelopes one by one, reading out the names and asking Namine why she didn't stay with them.

"Vexen, what about dear old Vexen, Namine?"

"He's moved off somewhere to be an inventor. Nobody knows what's happened to him."

"Then, what happened to Zexion?"

"He didn't want to deal with me. He's got bigger plans."

"Is that what he said to you?"

"Yes."

"Alright, then what about Demyx?"

"He's a drunkard."

"Xaldin?"

"He's got anger management problems."

"Xigbar?"

"He's getting married."

"Really? I always thought that he was gay. Well, okay, how about-"

"Everyone said no."

"Really? Everyone's too good for little old Namine?" Larxene pinched Namine's cheeks again, and then pushed her away.

"Well, you know what Namine? Maybe I'm too good for little old you, too! Maybe I don't want a little brat toddling along after me wherever I go. I wanna get drunk. And I wanna have sex too. Can you handle all that? Or are you too sweet and innocent to be around that kind of behavior? Also, I don't know what to think of you, seen as you plotted with Axel against me, and got me arrested. To be honest, I don't even know how you got the nerve to come here." Namine was sweating bullets under her little white dress that she usually wore, but Larxene gave her no peace of mind. "You know, maybe I could let you stay, and clean the house for me, mop the floors, do the dishes, wash the clothes. Really, it would be the same as when we were all together in castle oblivion. Speaking of which, I thought that Marluxia and you got on pretty well all the time. I'm surprised that he said no."

At this point, Namine had gone paler than the dress she was wearing. Larxene sensed she wasn't getting the whole truth yet again. She shuffled through the letters that Riku had given out to everyone, and found Marluxia's hidden beneath Xigbar and Xaldin's letters. It was unopened.

"You didn't even ask Marluxia if he would let you stay at his home, did you, Namine? What's the matter with him? Do you not trust him or something? He was never mean to you. He was always playing with your hair and looking at your drawings and stuff. He'd say that they were great when I knew that they were crap. Really, for all that practicing that you do, you're not very good." Larxene noticed that Namine was close to tears. She bent down lower, examining Namine's face closely. Then, she felt a tiny pang in her chest for the little girl. Noticing this, she straightened up, shaking it all out.

"Ugh. I just felt really sorry for you, like I wanted to help you. Ah, I thought I never had a heart. I've been trying to beat feelings like that out of me ever since my last boyfriend. I'll have to work harder at being selfish."

Turning, Larxene began to go back inside the house, but then she stopped, turning back to Namine with a pitying expression on her face.

"You know, Namine. When we first met, you were a scared, lonely little girl. And now, after almost three years, you're still just a scared, lonely little girl. You haven't changed one bit." Namine looked hopeful at this, trying to edge her way inside the house. "But that pity of mine does not extend to letting you sleep under my roof. Marluxia will look after you. If you need a girlfriend to talk to, don't call me" she began to close the door, but then she popped her head back out, scratching her chin. Then she smiled at Namine "in fact, don't call me at all! Bye!" And with that, Larxene shut the door in Namine's face.

Namine stood for a moment, assessing her feelings. She did not feel dumbfounded. She did not even feel surprised. In a way, she was expecting this answer. It should have given her relief, not having to stay with this woman who made her feel like dog dirt. But it only added to her anxiety. She didn't want to stay with Marluxia. She did not trust him alone with her. So, the only logical thing now was to go ask Axel. She had been dreading this part most of all. She'd be heartbroken if he said no. See, Namine had liked Axel from the first moment she'd laid eyes on him. Over time, she had fallen madly in love with him. She had tried to conceal her affections, and she thought she'd done a pretty good job of it. But it sure was tough, watching him messing around with the whole town, working his way through every house on the block, and waiting for her turn. Maybe it was because she didn't have a house to sleep in. Ha ha.

Namine wiped her eyes and stuck her tongue out at Larxene's house. "Big fat ugly stupid!" she muttered under her breath as she walked away from the house. She kicked Larxene's trash can over as she walked down onto the sidewalk, then she looked back at the house cautiously to see if Larxene had seen it. There wasn't a noise from inside the house, so Namine suspected that she hadn't heard or seen a thing. So, Namine took a deep breath and walked over to Axel's house. It would be a miracle if he was there, but she figured that she'd try anyway. If he wasn't there, she could go back through organization thirteen and try everyone again.

She knocked on the door loudly, a sudden boldness taking over her. Then, when Axel answered the door, it all disappeared.

"Hello, Axel." She smiled serenely as she said this, trying to appear mature and majestic. Axel smiled fondly. "Cut it out, Namine, you don't have to act all motherly around me. We're friends, aren't we?" he patted Namine on the head and beckoned for her to come inside. She followed him in and took a seat on one of the chairs in his small apartment. Surprisingly, he kept his lodgings pretty clean.

"So, Namine, tell all. What's up? Your eyes look a little puffy." He handed her a glass of water, and then sat down beside her. She looked into the glass, and then looked back up at Axel. He shrugged. "There's no juice left in the house. I haven't gotten a job yet so I'm just holding off on buying stuff. Pathetic, right?" He broke into a laugh, and Namine forced a laugh herself. "Yeah" she said weakly, looking down at her glass. "Pathetic, yeah, sure…" Then she snapped back to attention, and gave Axel the letter.

"It's from Riku." She said quietly. "It explains pretty much everything. I wouldn't do a better job by trying to tell you myself." She stopped, noticing that Axel had a worried look on his face. He never looked worried. He rubbed his chin, mulling things over in his mind. "Uh, did you ask the other members of the organization about this?" he chanced. Namine's shoulders fell, and Axel apparently noticed, revising his previous comment. "Uh, I just meant that does anyone else know about this? Like the employees in Castle Oblivion?"

"They were all given a letter."

"And all of them said no?"

"All of them said no."

"Even Marluxia?" At this Namine began to get exasperated. Why couldn't anyone figure out that she did not want to stay with him? "I haven't asked him yet." Namine said flatly. Axel sighed in relief. "Why don't you go ask him, and then if he says no, come back to me anytime. He might be able to provide for you better than I do. He's done very well for himself since he got out of jail. He even owns his own flower shop now. He's thinking of turning it into a chain."

Namine traced her finger around the rim of the glass of water she was holding. Then she drank her water and got up. "Do you have any lunch?" she asked politely. Axel chuckled at this. "Not today." He said, scratching his head. "Sora's friend Aerith is having us all over for dinner tonight to celebrate this guy Leon's birthday. She said that he hates parties. It'd be funny, and I'm a good partier, it's kind of like they're employing me for the night, and my pay is dinner and cake!" at this thought, Axel roared with laughter and Namine let out a forced chuckle. Then, a haze passed over Axel's eyes, and he narrowed his eyes, smirking sensually. "But you know- that Aerith is not bad. She's not bad at all. Maybe I could do a little more than just partying tonight." He chuckled to himself after saying this, and Namine clenched her glass a little tighter, frowning.

"You make all these girls so angry when you just play them like that."

"And boys." Axel added mischievously. Namine ignored him.

"If you continue on this way, you'll have no friends left- just enemies."

"That's not true at all!" Axel exclaimed. "I'll still have you and Roxas!" he smiled at Namine, and she stood up to go. "Sorry that I don't have anything interesting to do at my home." Axel commented as she walked towards the door. "That's probably one of the reasons I don't stay here that often." Axel laughed at this, and Namine smiled back at him, and opened the door. "See you later, Axel." She said weakly. Axel was already walking back into his kitchen to clean the glasses as he waved back to her. She shut the door.

That was another no. She checked in the little purse that she always kept with her. She had her sewing kit, 1,000 munny, and a ball of fluff. Then she checked in the big plastic bag full of everything that was either too big for her little purse or what she had acquired when she had been staying with DiZ. In that bag was her drawing book, her pencils and oil crayons, the fake lucky charm that she had given Sora when he stayed at Castle Oblivion (long story), 100 munny in various coins, and an old stencil. She sighed sadly, wondering what 1,100 munny could buy. Maybe she could sell pictures on the side of the road, like all those starving artists she'd read about in the library. Somehow that life didn't sound too hot, though. Maybe she'd do something else. But, all she had to do was ask Marluxia if she could stay with him, and if he said no, she could go back to Axel. But Marluxia wouldn't say no. He would say yes.

Namine ran her fingers through her hair, and noticed that she had just walked past an arts and crafts store- which would probably sell poster board. Giddily, she ran into the shop, looking through the different sections. The cheapest poster board was 100 munny, the same price as a strudel from the bakery next door. So, with 1,000 munny left, she went over to Sora's house. His dad was bound to have some old wood in the house. He had taken the care to pick up all the old bits of the raft he and his friends had made a long time ago, storing them in the basement of their house. Namine knocked on his door, and his mother answered the door. "What is it, dear? Are you looking for Sora?" Namine explained that she was a friend of Sora.

"I just needed to borrow a plank of wood to make a sign, and perhaps some other odds and ends to make a little stand for myself. The profit will be enough to pay Sora back."

Sora's mother nodded, just a little bit confused, and told Namine to go out into the back yard. "Sora and his father had wanted to build a tree house a few years ago, but now he's too old for all that kind of thing. It's all laid against the back fence, dear, take whatever you want. Do you need something to carry it in?"

"It's okay ma'am, I have a trolley from the supermarket. Of course, I just borrowed that for the time being." Namine added in at the end, to dismiss any implications that she was a tealeaf. (Petty thief)

So with her trolley of wood scraps, tarp, and poster board, Namine found a suitable place in between the grocers and the adult movie rental store, and set to work making her poster. Then, she nailed together some wood, nailed the poster board to the wood, and set it on the ground beside her. Then she made a crude stand, with a tarp over hang in case it decided to rain.

The sign read, "_Graphic Artist, Namine- here to answer to all your artistic requests. _ _300 per request." _ After ten minutes of men coming up to her from the adult movie rental shop and asking her what kind of 'requests' she meant, she decided to change location. She settled for a new destination between the bakery and a clothes shop. At first she was very excited. The people going in and out of the bakery seemed like a lovely bunch. She'd beam at them and point to her sign, but either they'd ignore her, or they'd give her an 'aww, how cute' look and mouth 'no thanks'. It was very frustrating. When the big purple clouds began to roll over, Namine began to worry a little bit. Would her tarp covering be enough to shield her and her stand from the rain? It looked as if it was leaning over a little bit already in the wind.

Suddenly, a woman came up to her with a worried expression on her face. Namine forgot about the rain, and pointed to her sign, asking the woman if she would like to employ Namine for a project. The woman waved the comment away dismissively and looked Namine in the eye.

"Little girl, you do know that a terrible storm is coming, don't you?" the woman asked Namine. Namine shook her head cheerfully. "I don't watch the news, but wouldn't it be nice to hug a lovely picture while in the middle of the storm?" Namine tried on her saleswoman persona. It wasn't working.

"You are a silly little girl, where is your mother?"

Namine laughed a little bit. Originally taken in by organization thirteen to work in the hotel, Castle Oblivion, cleaning and such in exchange for bedding, Namine had been roped into some of the members scheme to extract data from Sora so they could take over matters in the hotel and steal money from the company funds. It was something to do with Sora's dad's job. Axel had been sent in to monitor the employees there, and he got them all sent to jail. In time, it turned out that the whole organization was conning their clients and they were all incarcerated, except for Axel, who had only been hired by them. He was still scrounging around for a job. Namine was left on the side line, with no one in particular to cheer for. She didn't have any parents, or family. Unfortunately, she was too old to go back to an orphanage. It would've been nice to have a mother, a steady family that loved her. Kairi had been so lucky. She'd been adopted by the mayor and probably got whatever she wanted.

"Are you listening to what I am saying? How old are you, anyway?"

This made Namine snap out of her journey into the past. "I'm 16 now." She said. Why did this old bat want to know how old she was? What did Namine care about what she said?

The woman scoffed at her, and walked off.

Within twenty minutes the rain had started. Within twenty five minutes the rain began to howl. Within thirty minutes it began to pour, and in forty minutes it was like a hurricane outside. Not a soul was in sight except for Namine. She sat under her tarp trying not to worry. "I bet it's pretty strong, nothings gonna fall on top of me." Just as she said this, she heard a crack, and one of the poles holding the tarp above the stand snapped, sending all the water that had collected in the tarp covering all over Namine. The water had been so heavy that it snapped the poles supporting the tarp. Quickly, Namine grabbed her little purse, and stuffed it into the plastic bag that (luckily) was still dry from lying under the stand. Then, she stuffed the plastic bag under her white dress, which was soaked all the way through and began to slosh her way down the street, holding onto anything attached to the ground. There was a crash from behind her, and she watched helplessly as her stand and her poster crumbled to the ground, and was carried down the raging river which had collected in the middle of the street. She sloshed down the road, water up to her ankles. Luckily, all the buildings were built on at least a little bit of a slope, and in some cases up on top of hills and such, what with being so close to the ocean. None of the water flooded into the homes. The water rose in some places on the road, and potholes in the sidewalk were especially dangerous if you could not see them.

The water was now up to Namine's knees, and as she tried to take a big step she fell down into the water, and the contents of her plastic bag emptied from under her. With a cry, she watched as her notebook, her money, her sewing kit, and her lucky charm were all washed down the street away from her. She had managed to save her oils, and she tied them to her head with the strap on her purse, which was now ruined. Then, she swam down the road after her supplies. Gaining momentum, she caught up with 500 munny, stuffing it down her bra. Then, she caught another 200 munny, depositing it into the same place hastily. But the lucky charm was going so fast! It would reach the ocean before she could catch it! But Namine was determined, so she held her breath, put her head down, and swam as fast as she could towards what she hoped was the lucky charm. Suddenly, she felt her head hit something, and she cursed under her breath as she sat up, the water up her chest. She had swum into a street lamp. But, miraculously, the lucky charm had blown out of the water, and was dangling from the top. Namine caught it just as it fell, and cried with delight as it fell into her hands. She beamed around her to see if anyone was looking, but no one was in sight. Slowly, she stood up, trudging back in the direction that she had come.

Aerith looked out of the window in the kitchen, sighing sadly. There would be no garden party for Lion tonight. Of course Cid and Yuffie were there, but Sora and Kairi had been forbidden to go by their parents when they heard about the storm that was in. It was rolling across Hollow Bastion a few hours ago, and it all seemed to be collecting in Destiny Islands. Riku, Axel, and Roxas were at Aerith's house, too, but Selphie decided not to come because Axel was going to be there. She had been Axel's last fling. And she was angry with him because he was trying to avoid her.

Aerith turned around abruptly, hearing the phone ring.

"I'll get it!" Yuffie barked, jumping up and pouncing on the phone before Aerith could go near it. "Hey, Leon, you old fart! Why aren't you here yet? So what there aren't any trains going to Hollow Bastion from where you are? The walk can't be that bad!"

Aerith maneuvered her way in between Yuffie and the phone, and she sent Yuffie off to entertain what little guests that they had. "Hello Leon." Aerith said calmly. She noticed Axel standing in the kitchen out of the corner of her eye. "That was just Yuffie, you know her. If it was her, she'd have come here no matter what, rain or shine. No I'm not trying to make you feel guilty." Axel came up behind her, and started to play with her hair. "I'm sorry that you can't come tonight, we were having your favorite dinner for your birthday." Aerith flinched a little bit as Axel brushed his lips against the nape of her neck, and she heard him laugh quietly behind her. She blushed. "I know it's a terrible birthday present right now, but it will be lovely and green tomorrow. We'll have your birthday then." Axel was tracing his fingers along her back, and kissing just under her jaw. "No, I didn't invite anyone over. It's just us." Aerith said softly into the phone, and she thought she could sense that Axel was smiling behind her. "Bye Leon." And she hung up the phone.

Slowly, Aerith turned around so that she was facing Axel. He ran his lips along the side of her neck and then her collar bone as she turned, and pulled her closer to him as he kissed her under her neck. "What are you doing?" Aerith said softly, resting her hand on Axels head. "Kissing you." Axel replied, continuing to run his lips across Aerith's jaw line. "Why?" she asked, smiling slightly. Axel held her face in his hands, and leaned in close to her. "Because I want you." He whispered in her ear. Aerith looked him straight in the eye, without a blush, not even a change in expression. Then, she smiled at him serenely, and bent in close to his ear, so that her lips were just barely touching the side of his ear and cheek. She sighed in his ear, and then chuckled. "I've got guests." She said softly, and then patting his cheek, she walked out of the kitchen, and into the living room to talk with Riku about 'how on earth he got to the house without his parents having a fit.' Axel stood in the kitchen, dumbfounded. Then he slowly straightened up.

She had been teasing him the whole time. "I think I'm gonna love this girl…" he sighed to himself, and waltzed back into the dining room, beaming.

Namine stood in front of Marluxia's door, trembling. She clutched her plastic bag to herself uncomfortably, trying to put the fact that her dress _and _her underwear were now completely see through and muddy at the back of her mind. She heard a latch undo, and the door opened. Marluxia stood in front of her, shirtless. "Namine, I haven't seen you since Castle Oblivion. You look…" Marluxia looked her up and down, his eyes resting on her trembling legs. "Terrible." He finished, and went back inside. "Please come in" he called after her, and with a deep breath, Namine stepped inside the house and closed the door behind her. Marluxia looked back at her smugly, and pointed towards his couch, which he'd put a towel on top of. Namine sat down.

"You know, Larxene called me. She hasn't called me in almost two years, you know that?" at this comment, Namine sat rim rod straight, deliberately looking away from Marluxia. "Crazy, but she said that you'd turned up on her doorstep with a letter asking her to become your guardian, and to house and feed you. She said that you'd gone to every member of the organization, and they'd all said no, but that you had not gone to me. Of course, she made it sound like you didn't even _want _to stay with me… but I knew better. You always liked me didn't you, Namine?" he leaned in close to her, stroking her cheek. Then he held her chin in his hand, and pulled Namine towards him. Namine whimpered and tried to turn away from him as he made her look into his eyes. "You think I'll hurt you, Namine? I was nothing but nice to you at castle oblivion, that is, until you started blabbing on us. Two years in jail, two years, Namine, is not fun. Other privileges were permanently taken away from me, too. This was all because of your cowardice." He snarled their faces inches apart. "For a while I hated you, but then I thought to myself that you were just a little girl who was being stupid. I know Larxene was lying about your current behavior, because I would've thought that you'd grown up, and stopped being so cowardly and unfair towards me" he then let Namine go, and stood right in front of her, inching himself just the slightest bit between her legs. "Grown up girls cooperate."

Namine knew what was coming. She'd known all along. Marluxia cleared his throat and smiled down at her. "I don't require much of women. All I ask for is love and affection. I could teach you what it is if you like." He was poking fun at the fact that she had no family or friends. Namine hated him. "A mature, grown up, brave young girl would admit that she was wrong, say that she was sorry, and ask for help when she needed it. If you do all these things, I'll know that you're not the cowardly little girl you were before, and I'll go easy on you. But, if you refuse my help, and come back to me again- which I know you will- begging for me to take you in like street trash, I'll have to punish you harshly." He leaned in towards her again, playing with her hair. "I'll have to teach you the right way to behave, no matter how much it hurts you." Namine looked down, and noticed drops of water were rolling down her hands and into her lap. She was crying heavily. "There's no need to cry Namine." Marluxia said, rocking Namine back and forth and trailing his fingers down her back and leg. "All you need to say is please, I'm sorry, and thank you. You know the magic words. _Please_ take me in, Marluxia. _I'm sorry_ for treating you the way I did. _Thank you_ Marluxia for showing me the error of my ways. The end."

Namine thought for a moment, walked towards the door, and turned around, bowing to Marluxia. "Please…" she started off, not believing that she was about to do this. "Lower." She heard Marluxia say softly. She bent over lower, feeling like dirt. "Please…" she said again, swallowing hard. Then, she noticed that she had stopped crying. She slowly straightened, finally looking Marluxia right in the eye. He nodded. "Wonderful. A brave, honest woman can look any man straight in the eye." Namine smiled serenely for Marluxia. He was lapping it up like a fat puppy.

Namine cleared her throat, inched towards the door, and began. "_Please_ eff off." She started, and Marluxia's jaw dropped. "_I'm sorry_ that you don't have a proper cock like every other guy." Namine was doing the tango in her mind. "And _thank you_ for being so repulsive that I don't even have to think twice about refusing this offer. Have a nice day." She bowed again, and then ran out, tucking her plastic bag under her dress once again. She was at the end of the sidewalk when she heard Marluxia scream her name. When she turned around, she noticed how angry he was. "Namine." He seethed. "Come back in here right now. Come in here right now, or I will make you wish that you had never been born when you come crawling back to me." he was enraged.

But Namine stared at him for a moment, and then sloshed back out into the rain. She looked back once more to see if he was still there. He was waiting for her just inside the door. "Five hours Namine. I'll give you five more hours. The storm's forecasted to get worse- much worse." Namine turned and continued to slosh through the water on the sidewalk. She would not give in. Five hours were not so bad. He would think of her differently after those five hours. Then she began to worry. He was giving her another chance. If she didn't take it now, it would not arise again. But she could not think about that. She gaped.

The party! Axel had been talking about Aerith having a party for Leon! Maybe she could go there and say that she was sloshed off the road on the way there! With new determination, she plowed through the streets, trying to find the train station. When she got there, she found that the gates were closed.

"No!" she thought to herself. Then she thought about Axel's house. It was her only hope. Larxene would ship her back to Marluxia. Back she went to Axel's house.

She tried the front door. Then she tried the back door. They were both locked. She tried to see if he'd left any windows open, but they were locked, too. Shivering, Namine slumped down to the ground. Water ran past her fingers and down into the street. She could catch hypothermia staying out here. She decided that she'd rather die than go back to Marluxia. So she stayed under the roof of Axel's apartment, muddy and soaking wet. Thunder and lightning began to rumble and crack and the wind continued to pick up. She didn't know how long she'd been away from Marluxia. Probably two hours, now. Her fingers were already numb, and she looked on drearily as a stop sign was torn from the ground and tossed a few feet away by the strong winds. She was beginning to lose consciousness just as she heard the sound of soft footsteps coming towards her. Then, she sensed something warm lifting her up and carrying her off.

Leon stared at the pale, shivering figure infront of him. The girl was lying just outside a random apartment building door, staring on as signs and bins were blown around like leaves in the wind when he found her. She was all muddy and dirty, and Leon had done his best to wrap her up in a warm blanket and rub his arms around her until she got warm again. He'd contemplated giving her a hot bath, but only for a second. That would've been embarrassing for the both of them. But it might help her feel better. He was just weighing his options in his mind, when the girl began to wake up.

"I'm so cold I can't move." She slurred, putting her hand on his face and patting it. Yeah, she needed a hot bath more than her modesty and his pride.

Slowly, Leon picked her up and brought her into the bathroom. He set her down in his lap as he let the tap water run, and then he began to peel her clothes off. Just after he'd taken her dress off, he stopped, laughing a little bit. She was clutching a beat up plastic bag to herself. As the water ran, he gently nudged it out of her hands and into his, and emptied its contents onto the ground. There was some sort of a lucky charm and a box of oils and pencils. He tried rubbing them on his arm to see if they'd work, but the water had already gotten all over the crayons, and they were beginning to turn into slop in their box. The pencils would probably be okay with some sharpening and a cloth to dry them off. There was also a soiled purse. Leon shook his head sadly, putting all the contents back into the bag.

He looked at the girl again, sighing. "I'm really sorry about this." He said quietly, and he peeled her bra off. 700 munny fell out and smacked onto the floor, they were so soggy. Then, he took off her knickers and hastily put her into the bath, gently setting her down into the water. Immediately she sighed contentedly, and smiled weakly up at him. He felt her forehead. She wasn't coming out in a fever, which was a good sign. Then he looked more closely at her, groaning. She was Namine, one of Sora's friends. How weird.

Namine sat up suddenly in the bath, looking around her. "Where am I?" She said fearfully, gulping back tears. Leon didn't know what to do, so he started to pat her on the head. "Don't worry; I'm Leon, one of Sora's friends. I saw you sitting on your own outside, so I brought you with me because I didn't want you to catch hypothermia. You went unconscious in my arms. I'm sorry I put you in the bath, but I couldn't think of any other way to warm you up…" In truth, Leon could think of a lot of ways to warm Namine up, but he wasn't going to say any of them out loud. Namine turned towards him, eyeing him up and down. Leon could tell that she was still a little bit out of it.

"You know what?" Namine piped up. Leon looked up at her. "I trust you! You seem like the most responsible man alive!" with that, she stuck her head under the water, and straightened out her legs, pointing her toes up into the air. Leon blushed, trying to control himself. She wouldn't trust him at all if she knew what he was thinking. Then, she sat back up and put her arms out to him, leaning into him. Her wet breasts touched his shirt, and he could feel her nipples hardening with the cold from under the soft white fabric of his shirt.

"Wellll…" Leon said, coughing loudly and hoisting Namine up. She almost tripped as he did this, and she fell into his arms. "Sorry." Leon said, blushing madly. Namine didn't say anything, she just picked up a towel and then started to dry herself off. Leon took off his T-shirt and handed it to her. "Here." He said quietly, looking away from her. "You can wear this if you want, I don't want you putting on those dirty old clothes that you have with you." Namine pulled the T-shirt over her head; it reached down just barely below her bum. Leon banged his hand on his head to force himself to think about something else. "You can have that double bed if you want; sorry I only got a single bedroom."

"We're at a hotel?" Namine said nervously. Leon nodded. "I can't get back home until this storm is over, so I guess we're just stuck here." Just as Leon said this, the power went off in the room. He heard Namine fall in the other room, and sighed heavily, going in to help her. A bolt of lightning streaked through the sky, and he could see the outline of Namine's thighs up to the tip of her back; the shirt had slid down to her waist. Leon went to help her up, but she pushed him away. "It's fine, its fine!" she said quickly, pulling her shirt down to her knees. Leon could hear her stretching the fabric. That shirt wouldn't be fit to wear anymore. He'd just give it to her to keep. She walked quickly over to the bed and hid herself under the covers. Leon didn't see any reason to bother her, so he sat in the chair by the door, and drifted off to sleep. He dreamed that he and Namine were in the bath together, then his dreams drifted into nothingness, and he went fast asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

_**If you have not read chapter one, please do- it's awesome! **_**Recap of events from chapter 1; Roxas tries to hide Axel from his friends in Twilight Town because he is afraid that Axel will romance them all, Namine becomes an orphan after her previous guardian, Ansem, blows himself up, and goes to all the members of organization thirteen asking them to let her stay with them. Only Marluxia says yes, but there is a catch that only a slime ball could come up with, and Axel falls for Aerith, who he figures out has a dark past. **

Axel woke up smiling. He stretched out his arms, and let his hands fall over the long reddish brown hair cascaded beside him. Aerith. He turned and pulled the covers off her a little bit, kissing the small of her back. She murmured something incoherent, and then turned to Axel sleepily. He put her face in his hands and kissed her on the lips. When he looked back into her eyes, they were clear and penetrating, and maybe even a little bit… angry?

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Aerith said dangerously. Axel looked down at her. To his dismay, she was fully clothed; her hair had just come undone while she was sleeping. Looking around, he saw that they were in the living room, along with Roxas, Riku, Cid, and Yuffie.

"Oh." He chuckled self-consciously. "I thought that we'd had sex." He said, shrugging his shoulders. Aerith stared at him as he continued to chuckle nervously. "Why would I have sex in the middle of a room full of people with a man I hardly know." She said flatly. It wasn't really supposed to be a question, but Axel answered it anyway. "Because I'm devilishly handsome." He said, smirking mischievously at her. She smiled serenely, sitting up. Axel sat up with her, and leaned in to her to whisper in her ear. "What's the big deal? If we're quiet no one will hear us…" he began to play with the buttons on the front of her dress, buttoning them and unbuttoning them. Then, he leaned in to give Aerith another kiss on the lips.

A resounding slap echoed across the room, waking up all of the guests. "Oh wow!" Yuffie said groggily. "More thunder?" Axel shook his head. "No, just an angry woman…" Yuffie narrowed her eyes at him, but any suspicions left her mind when there was a knock on the door. "I'LL GET IT!" Yuffie catapulted herself off the blanket she was sharing with Roxas, and over to the front door.

Roxas sat up, and stretched, sighing contentedly. "That storm was pretty bad last night! It seems like it rolled back over from Destiny Islands over to us! Thanks for letting us all stay with you guys!"

Aerith smiled and said 'you're welcome' from the kitchen, but Cid frowned. "Ha. I haven't slept on a floor in twelve years…my back's killing me right now…grumble" And with that he hobbled up the stairs.

There was a moment of silence, and then "IT'S ABOUT TIME, LEON! JUST LEAVE US ALL IN THE DARK, WHY DONTCHA?" Aerith peeped out of the kitchen shyly, then brightened up, striding towards the door. Axel stood up in front of her, but she quickly maneuvered around him before he could get a word in edge ways. A man Axel had never seen before stepped into the living room, with Namine. Axel gasped.

"Namine, what the heck were you doing with this guy?" Axel shouted, forgetting himself in front of everyone. He wasn't so much angry at the guy for getting Namine alone, but more with himself for not getting to her first.

Aerith seemed as if she could see straight through Axel. It was making him uncomfortable. "He's one of our friends, his name is Leon." Axel felt like banging his head against the wall. This was the birthday boy everyone had been talking about.

Aerith clapped her hands together, beckoning for everyone to come into the kitchen. "I just made heaps of toast for everyone, and the eggs and bacon are on the way!" she said happily, busying herself at the stove top. Everyone filed into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"So, Leon" Aerith piped up "Where did you stay last night?"

"There was this pretty nice hotel in Destiny Islands; luckily they let me get a room."

Axel looked at him suspiciously. "Did Namine stay with you there?"

At this comment, Yuffie almost choked on the toast in her mouth. She looked at Leon as if he had betrayed her. "You stayed in a hotel with a girl?" she croaked.

Leon waved his hands in front of himself in protest. "Oh, we didn't do anything!" he said quickly, and this seemed to put Yuffie's mind to rest. But it didn't do anything for Axel's.

"Oh really?" Axel chuckled. Leon looked at him closely, and then nodded. "I'm not a liar." Leon said in a low voice. Yuffie nodded. "Leon's the most brutally honest person you'll ever meet in your life! Well, besides me, that is." Then she smiled over at Leon, patting him on the head fondly. Leon looked over at Axel, as if analyzing him.

"You're Axel, right?" he said, eyeing Axel up and down. Axel nodded.

"I've heard all about you from Selphie. Didn't you also go out with Kairi? They're a little young for you, aren't they?"

Axel chuckled. "Yeah, well I've set my sights on older women now." His eyes traveled over to Aerith, who had obviously understood the comment. Leon did too, and he wasn't particularly pleased.

"Hey! Aerith's gone out with lots of guys too!" Yuffie piped up. Then suddenly, she gave a yelp. "Why'd you kick me in the leg, Leon?" she snapped at him. Leon turned bright red, and Aerith was busying herself at the sink, even though there weren't any dishes to be washed.

"You were going out with Cloud, of course, you two were together for a while. Then there was Kadaj- you went out with all of those brothers. And there was Barret and Reno, and Reno's friend." Then she turned to Axel. "You know, Reno looked a lot like you, Axel! Oh and there were Tseng, and Zack and Sephiro…" Yuffie stopped talking suddenly, busying herself with her food. Roxas was enjoying the story, and didn't see Yuffie's expression as she'd stopped talking.

"Wait, who was that last one? Sephiron?" he looked over at Aerith, who had a face of stone. She looked down at her hands, and then clenched them together, shaking her head. "He was a past boyfriend. He wasn't… he wasn't a very nice person." Her voice cracked on the last word, and she suddenly began to bolt up the stairs, mumbling that she needed to use the bathroom as she went up. Axel sprang out of his seat and followed her up the stairs, and Leon was about to follow when Yuffie stopped him. "Let it go, Leon. That guy's alright. You need to stop trying to shield her from every guy she meets. They're not all like him."

Axel knocked on the bathroom door, and noticed that Aerith was in one of the bedrooms, sitting down quietly. She was clenching and unclenching her fists, at first fast, but as time went on she clenched and unclenched them slower and slower, until she didn't do it anymore. Then, she took a deep breath, and looked up at Axel, who was standing in the doorway. She smiled up at him in the serene way of hers, and asked him if anything was wrong. He smiled sadly down at her.

"Not even a tear?" Axel said softly to her.

Aerith smiled, and shook her head. "Not even a tear."

"You ready to go back out?"

"Just give me one second."

Axel went over and sat down beside her, patting her on the back. Aerith looked at him. "You're not just using my condition to get under my skin, are you?"

"Only if you want me to" Axel chanced, looking down at Aerith's hands. He heard her chuckle.

"Sometimes I think if I just get lost in some quick romance the pain will go away. I'm always afraid that he'll find me. Or that I'll never see him again…" she said mystically, looking at the fan above her as it whirred around. Axel was puzzled. "Wait, are you talking about the same guy?" She wanted to see him, but she didn't want to see him?

Aerith shook her head. "No, no… different people." She laughed to herself. "I can't wallow in my past regrets, though. My worries will eventually become everyone else's worries if I become too selfish. I can't just think about myself." She stood up, and walked towards the door. "Come on, I haven't made the tea yet!" she chirped, and she was off down the stairs playing hostess again.

Axel scratched his head. She was perfect. She was sexy and good looking, she teased you and played the perfect hard to get, and with her history of boyfriends she was probably great in bed. But there was always a catch. She had a serious backstory. Probably, some guy had played around with her and she'd never gotten over it. Or it could be something worse. She probably wasn't into short term relationships. Axel sighed, weighing the options. He decided that he'd find out more about her before he went any further with the relationship. And everything would be grand. Completely alright.

…..

Roxas looked at Axel as they walked down the street. He felt terrible for prying into Aerith's personal life. He'd really made a fool of himself.

"Was she crying?" Roxas questioned. Axel shook his head.

"She wasn't super angry was she?"

"No, she was pretty calm about it all."

"Do you think that they'll all still like me?"

"Yeah, I'd say that your reputation is only slightly scarred."

"Don't joke like that, Axel, I feel like I've made a terrible mistake." Roxas moaned on. "They'll never have a conversation around me again!"

Axel looked over at Roxas. He was adorable. But there was just nothing romantic about the kid at all. Sometimes he was such a cold fish. He was always thinking about stuff.

"Where's Namine staying?" Roxas suddenly asked. Axel shrugged. "With Marluxia, I think." Roxas wrinkled his nose. "_Namine's_ staying with _him_? Are you _serious_?"

Axel raised an eyebrow questioningly, and Roxas plunged into conversation. "She _hates _Marluxia! She always told me how much she thought that he was a weirdo. And I heard that he wasn't very nice to her when she was working in Castle Oblivion." Axel rubbed his chin. "I always thought that Marluxia was alright. I had sex with him a few times, you know. He was a little overbearing in bed, but he was alright. Actually, I had to cut it short because he was getting possessive. We always did it really hard when I was with him. I had fun…" Roxas looked up at Axel in horror. "You _what?" _ He croaked, taking a few steps back from Axel.

"Well, what did you expect, Roxas?"

"Well, I don't know, I thought that you just kissed all those people and stuff…"

"You didn't think that I was having sex with _any_ of those people, not _even_ the girls?" Axel was trying to stifle a laugh.

"Well, n-no… I always just assumed that… that everyone did that stuff when they were in steady relationships…and, um, y'know…" Roxas was as red as a cherry. Suddenly, Axel had the urge to make out with him, but he banished that thought as soon as it came to him.

"Hey Roxas, you ever have longings for anyone?" Axel asked. Roxas shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, y-yeah. I suppose that I have."

"Like who?"

"Well, the first person I liked was Xion. Then I liked Olette. And for a while I liked Kairi. They all made me worry a lot, and I was always checking to see if I looked nice in the mirror before I met up with them, well, at first I didn't care what I looked like around Xion and Olette, because they were my friends, but then they just looked different to me, y'know? Like-"

"- No, Roxas, I don't mean it like that. I mean sexual longings. Like you really wanted to just" Axel put his palms in the air, and then clenched his fists "stick your cock right up their ass!" Axel looked over at Roxas, who proceeded to shuffle his feet in the dirt. Roxas shrugged, and then looked away quickly. Axel gaped, and put his hand over Roxas' shoulder. "Is that a yes?" He asked gleefully. Roxas pushed away, and began to clear his throat.

"Remember when you, I, and Xion worked together for Organization Thirteen?"

"Xion?" Axel asked. He couldn't remember her. Roxas gaped at him. "She hung out with us all the time! Xion was only with the company for a little while when she found out that they were using her to steal money. She trusted them and they just fired her when she found out. She was an orphan like Namine, too, and she had nowhere to go. That's what made me so angry, which is part of the reason why I quit the job. I tried to find her, but no one knew where she'd gone!"

"Ha." Axel chuckled. "And all this time I thought I plotted against them to get them all locked away because of you, while all along I was unknowingly doing it for an old friend, eh? I wonder why I forgot about her…" Axel looked off into the distance, trying to remember her. Why was she so forgettable?

"Anyway," Axel waved his hand in the air "back on subject, sexual longings for whom?"

Roxas remembered the question, and turned deep red as he got ready to answer it. "Well… me and Xion used to work together in the money room, with the checks and stuff- I think they were gonna try to blame the whole con thing on her because she supposedly dealt with the money. But, anyway, we were in there, alone. She bent over to pick up a piece of paper, and all of a sudden I just felt like- like"

"Like you wanted that cock of yours-"

"-uh, yeah yeah…" Roxas said quickly, making sure Axel couldn't finish his comment. "Well, anyway, then I just went up behind her without thinking, and her ass rubbed against my hips as she went to stand up, and nothing like that had ever happened to me before, so it was only logical that I, you know, that I…." Roxas looked down at the ground with an embarrassed expression on his face.

"You went hard?" Axel finished for Roxas, who nodded slowly. "I went into the bathroom because I didn't know what to do, and it lasted for like ten minutes! I thought I was gonna die, and then she started knocking on the bathroom door and asking if I was alright! Eventually it just went down, but by that time, she was seriously wondering what was wrong with me! Stop laughing at me, already!" Roxas finished. Axel was bent over with laughter. "It was awful! I lost any little pride that I had that day!" Roxas said all misty eyed. This only made Axel laugh even harder. "That's why you were avoiding everyone!" Axel roared with laughter. Then he beckoned for Roxas to come closer.

"Roxas, when you _want _someone, not just your body, but when your _heart _and your body want someone- you take that chance." Roxas looked at Axel with a puzzled expression. Axel sighed. "Here, practice on me." Roxas nodded suspiciously, like he didn't know what was going to happen next.

"I'm bending over, you go hard, jump away, and I ask what's wrong. What's wrong Roxas?" Axel said in a girly voice, and Roxas tried to keep serious.

Shrugging his shoulders, Roxas said flatly "I don't know." Axel shook his head. "You know what you want to say, Roxas. You want that girl. Say it loud, and say it proud."

Roxas sighed, and that worrying expression creeped into his facial features again. Then, he went completely calm, and looked Axel straight in the eye. He'd never seen Roxas look at anyone like that before. It made Axel feel naked.

"I want to have sex with you." Roxas said slowly and deliberately. Then his expression softened a little bit. "And I want to make you fall in love with me." he finished softly.

Axel looked at Roxas for a moment, speechless. He didn't know if Roxas was saying it to him, or someone else. But then, Roxas snapped out of it, and smiled at Axel.

"Did I do alright?" Roxas asked. Axel coughed loudly, shaking himself out. "Man, you made me want it. I can't imagine what those poor girls would do when you'd say that to them. You'd have Kairi and Olette begging for it if you talked to them like that. I bet Riku can't do that as well as you do, Roxas."

Roxas shrugged. "I liked her an awful lot. I couldn't bear to be around the rest of the organization without her. It made me so sad. I had always fantasized about her. And I was sure that we'd lose our virginity to each other someday, I don't know…but when she just upped and left, it left a huge hole in me. It's still there, I just pushed it to the back of my mind so I wouldn't hurt anymore…" he said sadly, looking off into the distance. Axel smiled. Roxas really was a great friend. If Axel could, he would go out and find Xion for Roxas. But he could hardly even remember her. Maybe it had been Roxas who helped him forget. Roxas had been so keen to expel her from his mind that she floated out of everyone else's. It was kind of sad.

"Well, to be honest, I've never had anything like that happen to me. I know I tend to use sex as an excuse not to sleep in my own bed, because it reminds me of the rut that I'm in." Axel chuckled. "I'm a bit pathetic in a way."

"No you're not, Axel." Roxas shook his head. "You have problems that you deal with in your own way, just like everyone else. Out of sight out of mind, right? That's what I did to the girl I loved the most. If anyone's pathetic, it's me."

"But she caused you more pain than my situation is causing for me."

"It's all the same… anyway, why are we talking like philosophers? Let's go get some sea salt ice cream, okay? I have money enough for a train fare to Twilight Town, wanna go?" Roxas dangled his money in front of Axel, and then began to run off. "Heh. Way to change the subject, Roxas." Axel ran after Roxas, through the soaked streets, and towards the train station.

…

The alarm clock resounded through Hayner's bedroom, and he sat up immediately, clicking it off. Then he jumped off the bed, and did his exercises. He'd start with some stretching- then he'd go into some workout sequences he'd seen in a health magazine at the ice cream store. And after that- he'd do a warm down and a few more stretches just to loosen his muscles up. Following this, he would take his clothes into the bathroom, and have a shower. After that, he would dry off, put his clothes on, and do up his hair. He had to get just the right 'I just slapped some gel on my hair and ran out the door' look, because no doubt if everyone knew that he worked hard on his looks, Pence'd have a laughing spree. He'd never hear the end of it.

Hayner checked in the mirror to see if he was more muscular than Seifer or Rai. He figured he was almost there. Maybe he just needed a bit more time to grow.

"Hayner, this is a big day, bigger than any other day. Make the most of it." He always said this to get himself riled up for the days ahead. He was determined to live life to the fullest, and never worry.

Then he heard a knock on the door. "Coming, guys!" he shouted out the door. He brushed his teeth, grabbed a banana, and flew out the door. He ate it on the way to their special meeting place, repeatedly telling Olette and Pence that he'd just woken up and hardly even had time to get dressed and have a banana. Olette and Pence both grinned at one another.

"But you always look so fresh and bright, Hayner, like you've just had a shower and exercised and everything." Olette said, smiling at him. Hayner waved this off, shaking his head. "Nah, this is just the way I always look." He drawled, coming up to the ice cream store. Olette made an 'oh' sound, which drew Hayner's attention into the ice cream shop.

"Roxas!" he shouted, running in to the shop and pouncing on top of Roxas. "Buddy, where have you been?" Roxas looked more worried than usual; he kept looking around him as if a ghost would appear at any second. "I was at that party I told you all about, I had to stay the night because the storm rolled back in and all the power went out."

Pence chuckled, and then looked behind Roxas. "You never told us about HIM." He said quietly, and Roxas knew what he was talking about. Well, there was no hiding it now.

"Guys, this is an old friend of mine, Axel. He lives in Destiny Islands now." Roxas said, and noticed that Axel was checking out Hayner. "Axel, say hi." He barked, turning Axel away from Hayner and over to Olette. That turned out to be a big mistake. Axel looked her up and down, grinning. "You never told me what a beautiful friend you had!" he smiled over at Roxas, laughing to lighten the mood. Olette blushed, shuffling her feet and batting her eyelashes subconsciously. Hayner was not liking this.

"Hey, big guy, what did you say that your name was again?" Hayner drawled to Axel.

Axel turned around, smirking at Hayner. "It's Axel, got it memorized?" And he looked Hayner up and down, resting his eyes right on Hayner's lips. Then, he looked Hayner straight in the eye again. Immediately, Hayner sensed that this guy was probably a lot more than he could handle, and he began to back off, mumbling that he wanted some ice cream, but Axel stopped him gently. "Roxas, you never introduced your friends to me." Axel commented, and Roxas nodded, looking completely annoyed. "Hayner, Olette, Pence" he snapped, pointing his finger to each person as he said their name. Axel looked back over at Olette, smiling broadly. "Olette, that's a nice name." Olette mumbled thank you, and blushed again. Roxas was fuming.

"I think me and Axel should be going." Roxas barked at Axel, as he was exchanging phone numbers with all three of Roxas' friends.

"Hey Roxas, maybe all of us could get some ice cream before you leave!" Olette said shyly, looking over at Axel. Axel nodded, smiling at her. "I think that's a great idea." Olette giggled quietly when Axel said this, inching a little bit closer to him. Roxas clenched his fists, breathing out quickly.

Poor Olette, she didn't know what she was getting herself into with Axel. Roxas didn't know if he could still save her. He'd known that this would happen. He'd known it from the very beginning. Axel would snog anything that could snog back. And he had his eye set on Roxas' three friends.

"Fine, but only for ten minutes." Roxas mumbled angrily, following everyone into the store. To be mean, he let Axel buy his ice cream, and was horrified when Axel offered to buy everyone's. Didn't he 'remember' the situation he was in? Hayner said no way, and he paid for his and Olette's ice creams before Axel could reach the counter. Pence sighed and paid for his own, and Axel shrugged and paid for his and Roxas' ice cream.

"Hey! I've got a great idea! Why don't we all go to the top of the clock tower, eh, Roxas?" Axel said, nudging Roxas in the back. Roxas grumbled 'whatever.' But Hayner looked confused.

"Roxas? How does he know about our special spot? We all used to sit there." Hayner said dejectedly, and Axel patted Roxas on the shoulder. "Roxas and I used to hang out there when we were buddies. We haven't been able to do it in a long time." Olette nodded her head at this. "That would make sense, because wasn't it Roxas that suggested it to us? So you two were friends before we were friends with Roxas? That's so cool!" Roxas rolled his eyes when no one was looking. Olette and Axel were both trying to wrap each other around their fingers. He wondered if Axel would break Olette's heart, would they all blame Roxas for introducing him and not be his friend anymore? What a terrible thought.

Axel led them all to the station tower, and Hayner and Roxas were employed with carrying the cooler full of ice cream. Roxas tried to send angry rays at Axel, but he was too busy talking to Olette. Hayner nudged him. "Roxas, what's up?" he said flatly. Obviously Hayner felt just as much put upon as Roxas did at the moment. Roxas shrugged. "Axel's just irritating the crap out of me right now, that's all." He snarled, looking up at Axel. Hayner nodded. "I can see why." He sneered at Axel, who wasn't listening of course. Roxas was surprised when he looked at Hayner. He knew he was annoyed, but he looked really, really angry. Then it hit Roxas. Hayner really liked Olette! Maybe Hayner liked Olette just as much as Roxas liked Xion. It would kill him if someone broke her heart and there was nothing that he could do about it. Roxas banged the back of his fist on his forehead. Why had he brought Axel to Twilight Town?

As they climbed the stairs to get to the top of the tower, Olette almost tripped, and Axel caught her by her waist and one of her legs. They shared a glance into each other's eyes, and then Olette turned away, blushing once again. Hayner looked ready to explode.

They finally got to the top of the tower, and everyone sat down while Roxas and Hayner handed out the ice cream. Hayner purposefully gave Axel his ice cream last, and Axel chuckled as he handed it to him, saying 'thank you' under his breath.

"This is great, huh Roxas? Just like the good old days, but now there are two groups of friends that should've met a long time ago, any one agree?" Axel looked around at everyone.

"Oh, yeah!"

"Yeah, we should've met way before."

"Humph."

"Nah." At this comment, everyone stared at Hayner, who acted like nothing had happened. Axel leaned in to him and asked why not. Hayner shrugged. "I don't know. You look more like one of Seifer's posse. And what's the big deal? If we met ages ago, things might've turned out differently." He stared purposefully at Olette, who was deliberately looking in the opposite direction.

"No one knows what you're talking about, Hayner." Olette said quietly. But that one hit Hayner right in the heart. He looked away like he was about to cry, and Roxas felt really sorry for him. Axel patted Hayner on the shoulder. "Anything the matter, buddy?" he said jokingly, but Hayner jumped up in front of him. Olette gasped. "Hayner, be careful, you're on the edge of a clock tower! If you fall, you'll die!" Hayner looked over at her with a trembling lip.

"I'm going back home!" He said shortly, but Axel blocked his exit. "It's okay." Axel said, holding his hands up as if in surrender. "I can see that my company is not wanted here. I think that I'll go home. Thanks for letting me eat this ice cream with you guys though, call me Olette." He added as if he was joking around, but Roxas knew that he was saying that for Hayner's sake.

Olette grinned. "Okay. I sure will." She said happily, and waved Axel goodbye. Roxas followed him out. "Sorry guys." He muttered as he went down the stairs, but Pence waved him off. "It's fine, Roxas. We all had a good time. Hayner's just being grumpy." Roxas heard them all laughing as he walked down the stairs after Axel, fuming.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Roxas snarled.

"Don't be so bitchy, Roxas."

"You don't have the right to say that, Axel! You have no right the way you were acting around Olette and Hayner. She's innocent, she doesn't know you'll do a bang-and –walk."

Axel chuckled. "A bang and walk? What the heck is that?"

"Stop joking around, you know what it is. You bang them and then you walk off and leave them to pick up the pieces of their life that you shattered."

"I was just playing around with her!"

"Try telling her that, she probably thought that you were seriously into her."

"Well, I was."

"No you're not. You're just using her as a place saver for Aerith."

"Roxas, I'm not that bad."

"Yes you are! You were even messing with Hayner. Is he next? You gonna take away the girl he like's pride and then when he comes to you all angry, you'll just strip him of what pride he's got left, too?"

"I'll strip him of more than his pride, Roxas. He seems like a big boy. He can handle it."

Roxas looked at Axel for a moment, coolly, and then he punched him in the stomach. Axel coughed then looked back up at Roxas, who looked like he was going to murder someone.

"What the hell, Roxas? What did you do that for?" Axel shouted at Roxas as he walked off. When Roxas didn't respond, he walked over, clutching his stomach, and turned Roxas to face him.

"What's your problem? Are you jealous that the whole town, all except for you, is getting a piece of me- OOFF!" Roxas had punched Axel again, this time in the balls. "You won't have any 'pieces' of you left by the time you've gone through the whole town, you'll just be empty! And I never liked you as more than a friend, I was worrying about my _friends_, not about me. Stop being so conceited." Roxas snarled at Axel, who was doubled over. Then, as Roxas went to turn around, Axel pounced on him. They both rolled to the ground, fighting and screaming at each other, but Axel eventually got the upper hand, and pinned Roxas down to the ground.

"This is a sexy pose for you, Roxas!" Axel sneered at Roxas, who was seething with rage.

"Eff you, you stupid pervert!" Roxas roared at Axel. Then he tried to squirm out of Axel's hold, but Axel only held him down tighter.

"You know Xion?"

"Of course I know Xion! LET GO OF ME!"

"Maybe I'll find her and give her to you as a present- of course I would've tried her out first to see if-"

Suddenly, a mighty roar erupted from Roxas, and with amazing strength, he kicked Axel away. Then, he catapulted himself towards him, and started taking blows on him. Axel tried to block himself, but Roxas had always been too quick for him. That was his strength.

"Okay, okay." Axel said between ragged breaths. "I surrender."

Roxas shook his head. "I want an apology."

"For what?"

"For hitting on my friends, insulting my friends, insulting me, insulting the girl that I like, and messing with me and my friends."

Axel chuckled, and shook his head. "Okay, okay. I sincerely apologize. I know I was out of line. And I'm sorry for that. I hope that your friends don't think anything less of you after what I did."

Roxas nodded, and then slumped down onto the ground, sighing heavily and tilting his head upward with closed eyes. Without thinking, Axel went towards him and kneeled down in front of him, with one knee between Roxas' legs, and the other knee on the outside of Roxas' left knee. Roxas looked up at him calmly. He had that same penetrating expression that made Axel feel naked when they were talking about Xion.

"Say what you said about Xion. Say it for me, though." Axel said softly, still looking at Roxas. Roxas chuckled. "I always knew that you liked me" he whispered, closing his eyes. Axel put his hand under Roxas' chin, tilting his head back up to face him. "Please." Axel whispered in Roxas' ear. Roxas sighed, and nodded. Then, he looked at Axel, straight at him.

"I want to have sex with you." He said calmly and deliberately. Then he leaned over towards Axel's ear, letting his lips touch Axels skin. "And then I want to make you fall in love with me." he whispered, running his lips back and forth over Axels ear. Then, he leaned back from Axel, and smiled. Axel felt a huge ache well up in his heart. He wanted Roxas so badly.

"Let me make love to you, Roxas, please. Fall in love with me. I'd beg you over and over again if I knew that eventually you'd say yes." Axel said yearningly, squeezing Roxas' hand.

"You know that I'm for Xion, Axel."

"Then who will there be left to love me?"

"You'll find someone, Axel. There will always be someone to love you."

"But what if I don't love them back?"

"Axel."

"Roxas."

Roxas sighed, rubbing his forehead. Then, he looked back up at Axel. "Hey, Axel" he said, sitting up straight. Axel backed away from him a little bit.

Roxas stood up, thinking, and then looked back at Axel. "If you find me Xion, I'll have sex with you. I'll let you try to make me fall in love with you. But, I'll at least give you that once- or twice if you can get me alone again." Axel couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"But you've got to find her for me. And if you can make her fall in love with me again, I'll do whatever you want as long as it's not long term."

"Whatever I want?"

"Yeah, whatever you want I'll do. If you stall or question I might change my mind."

"Okay, okay…"

"And until you find her, we don't talk about all this anymore, okay?"

Axel's heart sank, and Roxas folded his arms. "Sure." He said weakly, and Roxas nodded.

"Good luck, old boy." He said, patting Axel on the head. Axel frowned. Roxas knew that he'd given Axel an impossible task. And this was his way of dismissing the fact that Axel loved him and making it so that Axel could never mention it again. And he was obviously enjoying the little game he'd come up with.

"Well! How about we go see how Sora and Kairi are doing, huh? I heard that Riku's already gone back over to their house, why don't we go visit them?" Roxas piped up, and almost skipped off.

Axel followed behind him, but he wasn't thinking about Sora or any of those people. How on earth would he find Xion? He couldn't talk to Roxas about her past, because part of the bargain was that he couldn't talk about it. He'd have to go to all of organization thirteen, maybe her and Larxene both talked, what with both of them being girls. His goal was to find out what orphanage she came from. Then, hopefully from there, he would figure out where she'd gone now. If he was really lucky, Xigbar would invite her to his wedding. Axel would have to get himself invited. Or maybe he could sneak in. He shook his head, trying to think of what exactly he could do.

But he'd figure it out. He was going to find Xion.


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter is longer than the first two, (how I managed it, I really don't know) I really hope that you enjoy it; the first part is kind of a break from the norm. I realize that Kingdom Hearts **_**is **_**a fantasy story, so I wanted to insert a little bit of that element in there. **_**I **_**think that the first parts are sweet, but that's just my opinion. **

Leon woke up early, stretched, and got ready to go to work. First he took a cold shower then he got dressed, brushed his teeth, and went down for breakfast. It happened to be a rare occasion where Aerith was still asleep. He decided to refrain from waking her, so he crept downstairs. Even though she made a standard eggs and bacon breakfast when she had guests, when it was just the three of them, she decided to experiment with all sorts of concoctions. A few mornings ago, she decided to make a strawberry citrus quiche. Needless to say, it was a little weird for Leon. But, Cid and Yuffie didn't seem to care (then again, they ate anything) and finished it off so that Leon didn't need to have a second helping. Aerith would get moody if there were lots of left overs.

When he got downstairs, he noticed that Cid was in the study, fast asleep at the computer. Leon sighed; shaking his head, then shook Cid gently by the shoulder. He awoke with a start, and Leon chuckled as his old friend cracked his back, grumbling.

"Were you up all night, Cid?"

"Yeah, yeah. It's the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. They wanted to know about some stuff, so I looked into it for them."

"Isn't Hollow Bastion already 'restored' enough?"

"Listen, kid, it doesn't take the snap of a finger to restore a whole town after an invasion! Those heartless brutes! No one even knew where they came from; let alone where they've gone now. Lot's of storms and stuff around that time, too."

"What did they want, then?"

"Oh, one of the houses that had been remade had a nasty pipe leak, and it turns out that all the houses in that section of town have faulty pipe lines! It could be disastrous for the whole community. It turns out we've already lost a lakes worth of water in the three years since we've started this restoration stuff. We need to take legal action against the building company!"

"You're doing a lot of work for being a supposedly 'retired man'."

"Well, this is for an old friend."

"Are you sure this 'old friend' isn't using your knowledge for their own gain?"

"Only you would be so untrustworthy, Leon."

"I'm just thinking for your well-being, Cid. I don't believe that strongly in the goodness of the human race to think that no bad is going to come out of this. You're an old man. Take it easy." Leon realized he might have said the wrong thing when Cid suddenly sucked in a huge breath, puffing up his chest. He had to stop this action abruptly, because it hurt the disks in his spine. "Damn this old age fluff! I'd be twice the man I used to be if only my back wasn't so bad!" Cid grumbled to himself as Leon made his way out of the house with coffee in hand.

"And I'm not an old man!" he shouted after Leon as he shut the front door behind him.

Leon closed the gate behind him and walked down the sidewalk, away from the house he shared with Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid for longer than he could remember. He had always wondered about Cid's life before he'd taken all three of them in.

He walked down past the small shopping center in the middle of Hollow Bastion, occasionally looking into different store windows. The landscape was dotted with clothes shops, shoe stores, and novelty shops run by local artists and business people. At the very tip of the shopping center, where the medium rise apartments gave way to small, spaced out buildings, was where Leon worked. After the slight breakup of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, Leon embarked on a small quest to find a new job, and got one working for the new mayor of Hollow Bastion. He still worked with the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, but when it gave way, and wasn't needed anymore, he wanted to be rooted in a secure place and not have to scramble for work.

As he continued on through the shopping center, he took in the scenery, admiring the work and care that some of the city's best artists had taken to restore landmarks like the small fountain in the middle of the square. Walking by one particular shop window, Leon noticed an older man putting up a small sign saying 'sale'. Leon looked at his watch. He still had a little time to spare before he was really needed at the work place, so he ventured inside the shop. A small bell tinkled as he went inside, and he wondered if the shop was second hand, novelty, or something else.

"Hello?" he called out, wondering where the old man at the shop window had went to.

"Hello, you noticed the sale sign on the window outside, I presume?" Leon heard a soft voice behind him say, and he jumped as he turned around. The old man was standing right behind him, squinting out the shop window to see if there were any other potential customers outside. Then he turned his attention back to Leon.

"Anything I can help you with, young man?"

"Uh, no thanks, I just want to look around."

"Of course, call for Carl if you need anything." And he went off into the back of the store. Leon was thankful that he wasn't the type of store clerk to follow you around, waiting for you to ask a question.

Looking around, Leon saw lots of odds and ends. Old swords, various weapons in a glass case in one corner, and other antiques laid in careful display around the rest of the shop. But, there was also magnificently crafted furniture subtly dotting the small store, and Leon almost gasped as he came up to one particular chair.

It was meticulously carved, not a piece of wood out of place, and it was old fashioned yet simple, and not too gaudy. The legs were carved into odd looking paws, and polished in different colors; the 'fur' around the claws was of a deep blue polish, and the claws were a crystalline white. Leon tapped them, examining what exactly they were made of, but he couldn't figure it out. He noticed the old man craning his neck around from behind the counter to see what Leon was looking at.

"I see that you admire the handy work of that chair." The old man said, pointing to the claws on the chair. Leon nodded.

"Yeah, I can't figure out what they are. I've never seen diamond like this, before."

"That's because it's not really diamond. Where I'm from they call it 'Fairies Mirror', because they say that if you look into it, you can see inside yourself."

Leon looked at the man with narrowed eyes, and the shop clerk chuckled, shrugging. "Well, inside your heart, is what I mean. It's an odd substance that can only be found in the caverns deep under the Sea of Woe, millions of millions away from here." The man gestured as he talked, impersonating waves, and sported a woeful expression as he said the name of the sea that the jewel laid deep beneath. Leon wasn't fully buying it. "Where is this 'Sea of Woe'?" Leon drawled, examining the woodwork around the claws. It was unbelievably detailed. Behind him, he heard the rustle of papers, and noticed the man bringing out a huge old map, rocking it gently in his arms, making sure that it wasn't hurt at all. "Come with me." he said curtly to Leon, and Leon followed behind him into a small room with plastic covering, and odd instruments lining its walls.

"I have constructed this room to be able to work with very old documents and artifacts. I used to be an archaeologist in the day, but I retired to become an artist. Then, I decided that I wanted to open my own shop, to share my findings and creations with others. Here is the map." He said enthusiastically, unrolling it for Leon. It was a bit crusty around the edges, and the words were unintelligible in some places, but Leon could tell that the old man had touched up the names that he could read, because they were darker in shade.

"Here is the Sea of Woe." The old man snapped, pointing abruptly to a small corner of the map. Leon couldn't really understand where exactly this sea would be today, because the map was so ancient that none of the places on it bore any resemblance to anything that would be on a map today. But the geography of the edge of the landmass on the map resembled what the corner of Destiny Islands. And a few inches away from that was the Sea of Woe. Leon looked at the man suspiciously. "It's across the ocean connected to Destiny Islands." The man looked at Leon like he'd figured out what the old man was trying to tell him the whole time.

"Yes, yes- the only unexplored sea in the whole world. No one comes back from the other side of it. It's a little strange, isn't it?" he said mystically to Leon, who was chuckling. He had to hand it to the guy; the stuff he was saying was pretty believable, even though it was kind of silly.

"The reason that sea is uncharted is because of the horrific storms that roll in from it. If the storm a few nights ago was only one 20th of what it was like on the sea, imagine what it was like in the middle of that ocean? It's a pity that it can't be navigated. But that's just the way that ocean is." Leon informed the man as he put the map away. The man lead him out of the artifact room and back into the shop.

"Well, underneath those storms are the caverns. And in those caverns are the crystals. There is also a strange substance that oozes from the walls inside the caverns, making the already colorful texture of the walls even beautiful, which reflects through the crystals."

"So, how do you know all this?" Leon asked abruptly, patting the cushion on the chair. Even that was beautiful- blue leather.

"Um…well, I know of sailors who _have _come back." He said quietly. Leon looked up at him. "You said you were an archaeologist?"

"Yes."

"Did you ever go there?" Leon was very curious. The man looked uncomfortable. "Yes, I have been there." He said finally, sighing. "But you know, some of the people who truly believe in that stuff want it for themselves. If they knew that my art incorporated ancient and unknown substances, they'd be after me. Please refrain from telling anyone."

Leon smiled. "So, that substance you were talking about, what does it do exactly?"

"It enhances color. I use it to make my own paints. I mix it with the pigment." He said proudly.

"So, did _you _make all the art in this shop?" Leon barked, looking around again to see everything that was there.

The man nodded. "Yes, I said I retired to be an artist. I do everything. I made that chair." He said, pointing to it. Leon couldn't believe it.

"Do you want to buy it?" the old man asked suddenly. Leon shook his head, thinking of something else. "About the colors, you said that you had some?"

"Yes, I make my own paints. The substance works with any paper, but I've found that the paper made from the trees in Destiny Islands is the best. It's extremely expensive, though."

Leon looked around the shop again. "Do you have any?"

The man nodded, and signaled for Leon to come to the counter.

….

Namine walked aimlessly around Twilight Town, looking in store windows. She could see the clock tower from a long distance away. But really, she wasn't there to dawdle. She wanted to go there to see the old mansion.

It had been bought by Ansem as a work place for his experiments (he hadn't even blown himself up there) and a home for Namine after Castle Oblivion. She had her own room, refurbished to look the same as her old room in the Castle. Ansem thought it would be detrimental for her health to institute too much change at the same time. He never redid the room for her though. It was always just a bright white. The sun shone through the windows, through the lace curtains, and played across the walls and chairs and table in the room.

Namine looked to see if anyone was around, then she hoisted her skirt up around her waist so she wouldn't rip it (it had already been bombarded in the washing machine to get out all the dirt from the storm) and proceeded to climb over the fence. She got to the other side, and then went towards the door.

No one had ever bought the mansion because they thought it was haunted by a young girl. When Namine had moved in, it only heightened the fear of the townspeople, and permanently kept them away from the house. But Namine feared that if the house was left any longer to fend for itself, it would be overrun by plants and animals. Ivy was already taking over the walls of the house, and Namine waved a stick in front of her when she went inside the house to catch any spider webs before she ran into them herself. By the time she got up to her own room, the end of the stick looked like white cotton candy. When she got into her own room, she opened the window, and threw it out. Then she sat down in her old chair. She was surprised that she had not thought about staying in this house before. No one else was showing any interest in it.

She looked out the window again, and noticed a boy around her age on the other side of the gate, holding a camera. He was looking down at it, then he looked back up at the window, and Namine saw his mouth drop open. The camera flew up, and Namine let the curtain down before he could take a snapshot of her. She giggled to herself. The ghost had returned.

After a couple of minutes, she peeped back out the window, and noticed that the boy was setting a small box down on the ground before him. She watched as he carefully slid it under the fence, and waited with his camera in hand. It was already getting dark by the time the boy finally decided to get up and leave. Namine decided that he must have been in need of some dinner. But, he had left the box on the ground.

Slowly, Namine went out of her room, back down the stairs, and back outside. She looked around before she ventured out into the open to see if anyone was there, then she dashed towards the small box lying just inside the fence. She picked it up hastily and read the message scribbled on the front.

'_Give to the ghost'_ it said in blotchy handwriting. The package was wrapped in brown paper, and was quite large. It had looked smaller when Namine had spied it from outside the window.

Namine shrugged, and tore open the package, squealing with delight when she saw what was inside. There were brand new sets of oils, pastels, and watercolors all stacked on top of each other in the package. Below them was a new notebook full of the most beautiful paper Namine had ever seen. Inside the notebook, which had Namine's name on it, there was a small envelope with a letter inside.

'_Dear Namine,_

_The first time I met you was when you were perched on the doorstep of an apartment in the middle of that awful storm. It looked like you had swum to where you were sitting. When I took you to the hotel with me, I noticed that the notebook and oils that you had were ruined, so I figured that you might need some new ones, so you can keep drawing._

_The guy in the shop I went into was really helpful, and he said that all the colors he created had some sort of substance in them that made the paints and such more vibrant. Don't feel too indebted to me, because there was a sale on and the man sold all the stuff to me for an insane price. I think he was very thankful that I came in and talked with him for so long. He seemed a little lonely. He also informed me that he crafted the wood on the outside of the colors that I got for you, so everything was handcrafted with care._

_He is an amazing artist, with lots of entertaining tall tales to tell. I'll have to bring you in there some time and see if he'll take you on as an assistant or even an apprentice. Oh, also, the paper in the notebook was made from the palm trees in Destiny Islands; it's the paper that the colors work the best on, apparently. So, please enjoy the gift, if you feel like you owe me anything, just draw a picture for me and I'll be fine._

_ Hope this brings you a lot of joy, _

_ Leon._

…_.. _

Larxene primped up her hair, as usual, and heard a knock on the door. "Ugh" she said to herself "Let's hope it's not Namine again." She trudged down to the door, and slammed it open.

"What do you want?" she said flatly, and then she blushed a tiny bit. "Oh. It's you, Axel."

"Can I come inside?"

"Yeah, sure, sure." Larxene beckoned for him to come inside, and he did. He looked exasperated. "I haven't seen you in ages." Larxene said as he sat down on the pullout couch. He looked very sexy. "Ever since you put me in jail, I've always been a little angry with you." As she said this, Axel chuckled. "It was all just business."

Larxene leaned over the arm of the couch, and rested her chin on Axel's shoulder. "Is it still just business?" she cooed at him. He took a sideways glance at her, smirking. "Do you want it to be?" he said mischievously, pulling Larxene onto the couch with him. They lied down together, and Larxene started to play with Axel's hair. "What do you want, champ?" she asked.

"Do you remember a girl named Xion?" Axel asked. Larxene snorted. "What a crap name. No, I don't remember."

"She was the only other girl in the organization."

"Did she work for Castle Oblivion?"

"No."

"Then I don't know her." As Larxene said this, she sensed Axel's frustration. He never got frustrated like this. How fun.

"Wait a second. She was that girl that worked for the higher ups, wasn't she?" Larxene said as if it was like a revelation.

"You did know her?" Axel snapped. Larxene looked like she was thinking for a moment, then she shook her head. "Nope, can't remember." She said lightly, tracing her fingers over Axel's collar bone. Then she took his shirt off. "I really need something to jog my memory." Axel smiled up at her. "Oh really?" he asked, and she nodded as he began to kiss her neck, unbuttoning her shirt. She sighed. "Too bad I just put all these clothes on, now I'm just gonna have to take them all off again." She feigned irritation, pouting down at Axel. "Bummer." He said softly, removing her bra.

"You're so comfortable with me." Axel whispered, slightly pulling on her nipple with his teeth. It felt great. She laughed gently, her cheeks coloring. "I was always comfortable with you, Axel. We could've made a great pair. But you betrayed me when you got me locked away." She said in mock sadness, looking down at him.

Axel traced his tongue up the middle of Larxene's chest, neck, and then he kissed her. "You're good, Axel. I heard that you got a lot of practice. Am I right?" she looked into his face as he pulled back a little bit. He sighed heavily, and Larxene laughed. "I don't mind, Axel." She whispered.

They started to kiss one another, and Larxene wrapped her arms around Axel's shoulders. She felt his tongue slide into her mouth, and his hands move down to her waist, removing her pants. She felt one of his fingers move from her thigh to her knickers, and after waiting for a minute, she felt Axel's finger touching her. Her heart began to beat faster as he stroked her for a minute, then she let in a sharp breath as his finger slid up inside her.

"Mmm, Axel." She moaned as he moved his other hand underneath her. He slid another finger inside, and she nuzzled her face into his chest so that he wouldn't see her expression. He played around with his fingers, stroking inside and moving them back and forth. Larxene started to take off his pants and underwear as he started to sit up a little bit. She slid her fingers between his legs, and began to stroke Axel, moving her fingers along the underside. She felt his breath grow heavier and faster as he became erect. "Do you like it Axel?" she sighed in his ear, kissing him on the cheek. He paused for a moment, then she saw him grin, and he removed his fingers from inside her, spreading her legs apart and getting closer to her so that her hips were right against his. "Go inside me, Axel." Larxene sighed, and then giggled. Larxene moaned as Axel's cock went inside, and she clutched onto Axel's back, kissing the underside of his jaw. He pulled in and out, and his cheeks began to redden as his breath became more ragged. He wasn't smiling or frowning, he just had his eyes closed.

"Oh-mmm… Axel! I'm about to-to…" Larxene shouted as Axel rested his head between her breasts. "I-I…" she started to say, and her back arched as Axel thrust inside one more time. Then, she sighed, sitting back. Axel pulled out, and mumbled that he was going into the bathroom. Larxene curled up on the couch, smoothing her hair back and feeling her cheeks.

When Axel came back out, he was freshly washed, with a towel around him. Larxene giggled, undoing the towel and pulling him by both sides in towards her. "One more time, then I'll remember." She cooed, nibbling on his ear. Axel forced a smile, and turning around, he sat back, resting his head in Larxene's lap. "You know, I'm wondering if you know who I'm talking about at all. You make me feel like you're using me." he leaned up towards her, and putting both his hands on either side of her face, he kissed her. Then, Axel pulled back, smiling up at her.

Larxene sighed, and pinched Axel's nose fondly. He was so yummy. But, she couldn't wait to see the look on his face when she told him.

Leaning down, she looked straight into his eyes. "I am just using you" she cooed "just like you tried to use me to figure out about your little girlfriend." As she said this, the smile wiped clean off Axel's face, and he got up without saying a word.

He put his clothes on silently, and was just about to walk out the door when Larxene kicked him in the thigh from the couch. He looked around at her, hoping that she'd tell him what she knew. "When I was hired into Organization Thirteen, first I worked in the offices, and then I worked directly in Castle Oblivion." She drawled, looking at her fingernails. "I never worked with another girl. I always assumed that it was just me."

Axel's hand tightened around the doorknob.

"Hey Axel?"

"What."

"Next time you come over, we'll do it properly. I won't have you trying to sex me up to get information out of me."

Axel chuckled, shaking his head. "There won't be a next time, Larxene. Why would I come back?" He'd never been played like this before. Larxene tutted under her breath.

"Someone's a sore loser." She said coldly, and Axel walked out the door, slamming it behind him. He was fuming.

"I should've known." He growled to himself, and then he stopped, and began to laugh. "Just laugh it off, Axel, don't get serious." He said to himself, trying to lighten the mood. Suddenly, the thought to go to Aerith's house struck him, and he found himself walking back to the train station.

It had been two days since he'd made the bargain with Roxas, and he couldn't sleep at night because of it. He had to find that girl. But all the members of the organization had said that they couldn't remember her. He still had to ask Xigbar, though. And Marluxia. He went up to the front desk at the train station and asked for one ticket to Hollow Bastion. He remembered where the house was. As he rode the train, he couldn't shake the memory of Larxene. Somehow, she'd even managed to make him feel a little guilty for what he did. Axel sighed.

"I suppose that you deserved what you got." He said to his reflection in the window across from him.

"Next stop, Twilight Town." The conductor yelled through the microphone as the doors closed on the people who had just entered the train, and Axel pulled the hood on his jacket up over his head, and leaned back against the seat. A young girl with short black hair like Yuffie's and striking blue eyes sat down next to him. She let out a deep breath, and set the pile of groceries she was holding down beside her. Axel opened one eye to look at her, and then he smiled. "Long walk?" he asked lightly, and she nodded. "I practically ran here because my boyfriend would flip if I was gone too long." She said, stretching her arms. There was something about the girl that drew him in. "Possessive?" he said without thinking, and the girl let out a sigh, shaking her head. "You have no idea." Then she adjusted the pin that was holding up her fringe, and as she took it out, her hair swished down around her face. Looking at her that way, Axel got a flash of something, but it disappeared before he could think of what it was.

Then, she pinned it back into place and sat back. "Can I just talk to you?" she asked suddenly. Axel sat up straighter, surprised. "I really need to talk to someone. We'll probably never meet again, so it's all fine" she said quickly. She looked like she was hurting inside. Axel nodded, and the girl started off.

"So, I convinced my boyfriend that we should move to Hollow Bastion about a year ago. I acted like I didn't know much about the place, but secretly I knew that it was pretty close to Twilight Town, my favorite place in the world. Now, he wants us to move back to his hometown. I think that he's gonna introduce me to his parents and ask me to marry him." Axel looked over at her in disbelief. She looked like she was around Roxas' age. She obviously saw his expression. "Yeah, I know it's crazy. He says he wants to see his parents again, but I feel like he just wants to cut me off." She was clenching and unclenching her fists. "I just wanted to try to sneak off to Twilight Town on the pretense that I was getting groceries." She whispered. "Just to see if _an old friend _was still there." Her last line was hasty and strained; like she was terrified that someone was watching her.

Axel shrugged. "Why don't you just run away from the guy?" To this the girl forced out a laugh. "Easier said than done. Besides, I want to graduate from school, get lots of scholarships, and go to college. They'll have dorms for me to stay in, and I won't have to worry about anything. I've just got to last till then." She said this hopefully, like she was convincing herself that everything was going according to plan, but like she knew that it really wasn't likely. Axel felt kind of sorry for her. He took out a piece of paper he had in his pocket, and wrote down his number. "Well, if you need anything, just give me a call. I can try to help you. My name is-"

"-PULLING INTO TWILIGHT TOWN, NEXT STOP, HOLLOW BASTION!" the conductor suddenly bellowed across the microphone, and the girl jumped up suddenly, grabbing the piece of paper where Axel had written his phone number on out of his hands. He hadn't had time to write his name, or to get hers.

"Thank you, I really have no time to spare, it meant a lot to me that you listened!" the girl said on the way out, waving behind her.

Axel waved back to her. "Please call me- I promise I'll help you." The girl nodded as he said this, but didn't look at him as she got out of the train. Axel had the feeling that she wasn't going to call him at all.

He sat back again, looking out the window, and saw that the girl had stopped outside the train. She seemed like she was looking at him as if trying to remember something, but then the train pulled out of the station, and she disappeared with it. Axel shrugged it off. What a weird experience. Something inside him was screaming out to him, but he didn't know what it was, so he didn't do anything about it. He still felt bitter after what Larxene did. At least she told him something, though.

Axel closed his eyes for a little while, and was jostled awake when the microphone came on again. Slowly, he pulled his hood back down, rubbed his eyes, and got off the train. A crowd of business men rushed past him as he exited the station and commenced the walk to Aerith's home.

Going up the steps, inside the gate, and up to the house she shared with Cid, Yuffie, and Leon, Axel suddenly got the urge to just turn around and leave. But he found himself knocking on the door anyway, and took a deep breath as he heard the latch undo from the inside, and the door open. Aerith poked her head out the door in that serene way that she always had about her, and frowned.

"How did you know I was at the house alone?" she said slowly, backing inside the house a little bit. Axel managed to slip inside just as she closed the door, and she seemed thoroughly annoyed, but offered him tea anyway.

"Yeah, sure" he said, nodding his head and sitting back in a chair in the kitchen. "I'd love some tea." He tapped his fingers on the table as Aerith pulled a pitcher of iced tea out of the fridge, and set it on the table. She looked up at him suspiciously. "Why don't you go sit in the living room?"

"I wanted to talk to you face to face, and I can't do that when we're in separate rooms." He pointed out, reaching out to hold her hand, but just as he did, she slid it away and poured tea out for both of them, into glasses that were already on the table.

"What do you want to talk about, Axel?" she said curtly, setting her glass down and looking him in the eye. He couldn't help but smile.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Anything." He was really wondering about her past, though. How could he ask her without making her further retreat into herself? He decided he wouldn't ask yet, he'd just tell her about what happened on the train. He decided she wouldn't think much of him if he told her about Larxene.

"So, I was on the train today, and this girl just sat down beside me and asked me if she could talk to me." Aerith seemed interested when Axel began to say this. "She seemed like she just needed someone to talk to. So, she told me that she was going to Twilight Town when her boyfriend thought she was just getting groceries. She wanted to see an old friend before she had to move to her boyfriend's hometown. She thinks he's gonna propose to her, but she doesn't want to leave him or she'll be left on her own. But she says she's afraid he's trying to cut her off from everything that she knows." Aerith's hands had tightened around her drink, and she nodded, as if lost in her own world.

"I gave her my number and asked her to call me if she needed help, but I never got her name and she never got mine." Axel shook his head, chuckling sadly. "I don't even think that she's going to call me, to be honest. I think that she thinks she can handle it on her own. She was so young, around Roxas' age, it looked like." Axel noticed that Aerith was clenching and unclenching her fists again, faster at first then slower.

"She was doing that thing too." Axel said without thinking, and Aerith stopped abruptly, suddenly self-conscious.

"But, I don't mind if you do that!" Axel piped up, waving his hand in the air. Aerith smiled at him, but it was strained, and Axel shook his head, taking her by the hands. "Don't force a smile, it's not healthy. You can be sad around me. Please, don't barrel up all that inside you. I really don't mind." Aerith nodded as Axel said this, and she looked like she was about to cry.

"I've done that with my fists ever since I was a kid, my mother never knew where I got it from. I'd just tense up my whole body, and let it all go, faster at first, then slower until I was better. Then I'd take a deep breath, and leave it behind me. It's funny, I thought I was the only person around here who did that" Aerith said placidly. "My old boyfriend used to laugh at me when I did it, then I tried teaching him, and after that he did it nonstop. He had so much pain inside of him. He was always so angry."

As she said this, she looked out the kitchen window, sighing. Outside, willow branches barely swept against it, tapping in a calming rhythm with the slight breeze outside. "It almost killed me" she whispered somberly, wiping tears out of her eyes. Axel didn't know what to do. He squeezed her hand tightly, pressing his thumb into the middle of her palm.

"You know, when you're just stuck in darkness day after day, with someone who loves you so much, yet hates you so much at the same time, it breaks you down until you feel nothing inside. They never trust you, no matter how much you try to show them that you love them, and they cut you off from everything until they're all you have left." Aerith's cheeks were stained with tears.

"I loved him so much that I convinced myself things would get better, but then one day, I realized that they wouldn't. So I ran away and left everything behind. I met up with Cid and he took me in. And everything's alright now."

Axel knew that everything was not 'all right'; he knew when someone was hiding something from him. "If you need any help, just ask me." he squeezed her hand again, and she smiled at him, laughing a little bit.

"Oh, I forgot myself. I'm so sorry for burdening you with all these sad stories. It seems like he's come back to haunt me…" she trailed off as she said this, suddenly standing up, and putting the pitcher back in the fridge and the glasses in the sink. "I forgot the tea. It'll get warm if I leave it out. I've got to clean the dishes. It was nice talking with you, Axel. Come over again sometime when we're all together, and we can all have a great time together." Aerith chirped, busying herself at the sink.

Axel nodded his head, and got up to leave. "Call me if you need anything." He said, scribbling down his number on a piece of paper attached to a tiny bulletin board beside the cupboards. "See you later." And he left, shaking his head as he walked down the steps, and down the sidewalk.

"More weight on my shoulders." He grumbled to himself as he kicked a stone out of his way. He tried to guess at what was going on. He felt 80% sure that the man Aerith was talking about had made contact with her again. She had probably not told anyone about it except him. The event on the train was what triggered her off. Axel couldn't believe how much information he'd gotten out of her. But it just made him feel sad again. But, he couldn't help but feel that there was a connection between Aerith and the girl on the train. He was probably just coming to conclusions based on anything, though.

….

Roxas walked out of his house, sucking in a breath of fresh air. The storm had been brutal while it lasted, but it sure made everything greener and nicer looking. He made his way down to the ice cream store with a skip in his step, saying hi to everyone he knew. He wasn't worrying at all today. It was great!

As he got towards the store, he felt inside his pockets for some money.

"Aw, come on!" he said dejectedly as he remembered that he'd forgotten to bring any. So, he sauntered back to his house, felt around in one of his old jackets for some cash, and skipped back out of his house with 100 munny.

As he walked into the ice cream store, he looked around to see if there were any good magazines at the door, and went towards the counter. "One sea salt ice cream, please." He said to the man at the counter, and paid his money. The man gave him his ice cream, and as Roxas turned around, he almost dropped it. Standing just a few feet away from him was a girl with short black hair, almost his height. For a moment, she turned around, as if she was looking for someone, and Roxas saw the striking blue of her eyes. His heart almost flew up through his throat as she left the store, and without thinking, he bolted out after her.

Suddenly, as he looked around the street, a crowd of people engulfed him, and he could barely hear himself calling out.

"Xion!" he tried to scream, but a portly man pushed up behind him, knocking him forward a bit.

"Watch where you're going, young man!" the man growled, and turned to go down the street. Roxas looked around, and caught sight of the girl again, her short black hair swishing slightly in the breeze. Dodging around a man and a woman and child, Roxas began to bolt after her. She stopped at a street corner, taking something out of her pocket to look at it, when Roxas grabbed her by the waist, and hugged her tightly. He couldn't believe that he'd found her, then she turned around.

"Whoa, Roxas!" Yuffie giggled "I didn't know that you were so into me!"

Roxas looked into her eyes. The sparkling blue that he'd seen before wasn't there. Bright brown eyes stared back at him. "What's the matter, Roxas? Do you not like me anymore?" Yuffie joked, patting Roxas on the shoulder, and then she put her hand to her forehead. "Oh, I'm doing a job for Leon out here; do you want to come help me out?"

Roxas looked back in the direction he'd come. Had he just imagined it? He sighed, nodding. "Yeah, sure thing." Well, it was a good dream while it lasted.

….

Xion hauled the groceries up the long and winding flights of stairs. It was dark around here, and she could only hear her own footsteps and the occasional mouse scampering around. Graffiti lined the walls around her, and she laughed to herself as she came across a sign etched into the side of the wall, 'Axel was here.' She remembered that time. Axel had wanted to put his name down somewhere, and Roxas kept telling him not to. But it didn't stop Axel, and Roxas was grumpy for the rest of the day. He could be such a baby sometimes.

Xion reached the small metal door at the top of the staircase, and opened it slowly, taking everything in. Then, she moved the groceries out beside her, closed the door, and sat down.

She could see all of Twilight Town from the top of the clock tower. The wind blew stronger up here than on the ground, and it was colder, but it was lovely all the same. The sun was just beginning to set. She felt tears well up in her eyes as she looked around her. This would probably be the last chance she'd have to see this place again.

The sea salt ice cream that she'd bought was poking out of the grocery bag, and it looked really inviting. Xion peeled off the packaging, and set it down beside her, taking a lick of the ice cream. Old memories flooded back to her, and she looked down at the treat sadly. If only everything had turned out differently.

Once she'd finished her ice cream, she sat back for a minute, closing her eyes. Why did she feel like she needed the man she was with? She didn't _need _him, not truly. Suddenly, the clock chimed 6, and Xion jumped up, remembering that she needed to get back home so he wouldn't be angry. She thought for a moment, then, taking a pen out of her pocket, she scribbled down something on the popsicle stick.

'_Xion came back to see you. I'll always miss you, Roxas.'_

Then, she set it down under the clock, and ran back down the stairs as quickly as she could, with her bag of groceries in hand.

A lot of people didn't know this, but every Friday at 7, a janitor came up to clean the top of the clock tower. He knew that somehow, kids got inside, even though there was a lock on the door leading up into the tower. And, he took it upon himself to clean the top of the clock tower, making it sparkle for the next week.

The man hauled his little bucket of cleaning supplies up the stairs, scoffing at all the graffiti on the walls, and made his way out on top of the tower. Then, he set to work cleaning off and polishing the hands on the clock, checking the mechanics to see if it was doing alright, and cleaning the chimes on either side of the clock. Just as he was about to dip his cleaning rag back into the bucket, his foot hit against something. Looking down, he noticed a popsicle stick set underneath the clock.

"Stupid kids." He muttered to himself as he threw the popsicle stick over his shoulder. The wind carried it down off the station tower and into some bushes a few feet away.

….

When Roxas finally made it up to the clock tower, Xion was already opening the door to her boyfriend's apartment in Hollow Bastion, all set up to move out, and the janitor that worked on the clock tower was already driving home for his dinner. The sky darkened as the sun disappeared behind the horizon, and Roxas sat as the stars began to dot the sky, thinking again.

Nibelheim sephiroth hometown


	4. Chapter 4

**Recap of last chapter- Leon gets Namine some special new art supplies, Namine moves back into the now deserted old Mansion, Axel tries to get info out of Larxene, meets a strange girl with black hair and blue eyes on the train but doesn't register who she might be. Xion goes to Twilight Town one last time. Read on! The story is just steam boating along! There is much more to come so keep reading! **

Xion woke up to her boyfriend banging around in their tiny kitchen. She knew he was angry, and a chill ran down her spine. But, she summoned up her courage, took a deep breath, and sauntered into where he was sitting at the kitchen table. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek, brushing his beautiful silver hair out of his face. He looked ahead with a stony expression, and ignored her.

"What's the matter, love?" she said cheerfully, patting him on the back and going to open the fridge. He looked over at her, and she could feel the pain inside him being directed towards her.

"The building company I work for is being bombarded by the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. Now the mayor is trying to sue us for putting in faulty pipes."

Xion rolled her eyes. "It was that Ansem guys fault, right? That stuff he invented to make pipes last longer actually corroded them, right? It's weird that a guy that smart would make a mistake _that _big, right?"

The man shook his head. "There's no proof of any substance being on the pipes. They must've absorbed it."

"Or maybe the ground did." Xion offered, glad that the morning wasn't starting off with a fight. She hated when that happened.

"The man that was in charge before me cheated him out of a lot of money. It may have been revenge." The man snarled, looking back up at Xion. "And now it's all being blamed on the man who took the job, who wasn't involved directly. If we hadn't have moved here this wouldn't have happened."

Xion paused at the counter, looking towards the doorway. She always did that before he started to advance on her. Maybe it was that 'fight or flight' thing.

"We should never have moved to Hollow Bastion. I always knew that you had a personal connection to this place."

Xion looked around at him, chuckling nervously. "I told you I picked this place because of the nice shops and scenery- that by the way you never let me get out and see." She added bravely at the end, not quite understanding what he was getting at. He was smiling now.

"You were at the supermarket for a long time yesterday."

"They were out of the right milk. I had to wait for a guy to get some more from the back of the shop, in the storage area. I just wanted to make you happy-"

As soon as Xion said this, the man began to snicker at her, and Xion tightened her grip around the tea towel in her hand. What was going on?

"You're the best lair I've ever met. You've been fooling me for two and a half years now." He said, reaching into his pocket to pull something out. "But you forgot this when you were taking the food out of the grocery bag last night." Xion went completely cold as the ice cream wrapper came out of his pocket. He set it on the table in front of her.

"It says it's from Twilight Town. Why would you go to Twilight Town to get some ice cream when you could've just gone down the street? You were already in the supermarket, weren't you?" He sneered, and Xion forced herself not to cry- or scream out for someone to help her.

"I-I just…" Xion stuttered, trying to say something that would make the situation better.

"Spit it out." The man snapped, and Xion gulped back tears.

"I just wanted to see it for the last time before we left. I'd never gone before, I swear. I just wanted to see the place where my old friends were." She said quickly, when suddenly, the man slapped her in the face.

"First time you've gone? How can I believe a liar? Because of you, we're both in trouble. I can't move until this legal thing is sorted out- and it's all your fault!" he screamed, punching Xion in the stomach and face, kicking her in the leg, and finally pulling her by the hair so her face went up to look at him. Her face was stained with tears.

"And now you've got the nerve to cry in front of me, you stupid slut? I'm glad that I never trusted you." He said finally, punching her hard in the stomach again, and then in the face. Xion keeled over, coughing up blood. The man washed his hands in the sink, and left the house, saying "If you leave this room- I'll know! That is your punishment." And then he left.

Xion stayed down for a few minutes, breathing in carefully in case she inhaled blood, then jumped up and threw up into the sink. She sank back down to the floor in agony, sobbing.

"I HATE YOU!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. Was it worth it, staying in this mess and slowly killing herself?

"If I leave Hollow Bastion with him, only an angel will be able to bring me back." She said to herself, gulping back tears. Then an unidentifiable terror welled up inside her, as a sudden question came into her mind.

What if he expects me to stay at home if I marry him?

There would be no more school. No more dreams of college and a job. No more seeing friends. She'd be stuck inside for the rest of her life.

As this realization hit her, it proved too much, and Xion went unconscious.

…

The white room in the old mansion was looking a little bit homey again, and Namine sat back to examine her handy work. She'd drawn five pictures so far, and the white room made them look ethereal. They really were beautiful colors that Leon had given to her. They gave her pictures a beauty that they'd never had before, and for some reason, Namine felt like her feelings came out and engulfed her through the pictures. They were very powerful.

For doodling, she just used old printer paper that she'd found downstairs in Ansem's old work room and her regular pencils.

She decided to go look out the window once more. The boy was still there. Namine had to admit it; she was getting kind of irritated. He was always there! It had been three days since she'd 'moved' back into the mansion, and so far, every day he would come with his camera in hand, waiting to take a picture. Namine had the mind to just run out to him and say that she wasn't a ghost at all. But then the mansion would be sold, and she would eventually have to go back to Marluxia.

She took the tiniest peep outside, and saw a flash go off across the fence. He'd taken a picture.

"Go away!" she growled to herself, watching him reset the camera, and take out his little photo, eyeing it like a prize. Insufferable. Completely, and truly insufferable.

….

Axel made his way through the meticulously decorated hallway, and pushed open the white double doors in front of him. He'd tried Xigbar's home address, but the only person he found there was the man's mother. She was actually a really sweet old lady. She gave him the address of the wedding hall where Xigbar was organizing for the big day, and said that she would definitely put Axel on the guest list.

As the double doors slid open, Axel immediately heard Xigbar's voice down the hall.

"I told _you_ to put those purple painted flowers on _the terrace_? As_ if_!"

Axel chuckled as he heard this. Same old Xigbar. Slowly, he sneaked up behind the guy, and poked him in the back.

"BWAHHHHH!" Xigbar screamed, letting fly all of the paper's he had been holding. Then he wheeled around to look at who had scared him.

"Who invited you here?" he snapped at Axel, picking up the papers he'd dropped. "Now I'm going to have to sort these papers out all over again!"

"Why don't you just staple them all together?"

"Staple them together? As _if_! How big of a staple do you think you would need to put together all of these papers! No, I need one of those jumbo clips that they sell in the supply stores. I should've gone and added those to the list. Stupid, stupid Xigbar!" he complained to himself in woe. Axel rolled his eyes as Xigbar got all melodramatic.

"Oh, where's Susan, I have to show you Susan, if you're already here, I might as well show you Susan. SUSAN!" he screeched at the top of his lungs, and a small, skinny, nervous looking woman came out from behind a pillar on the right side of the hall, twiddling her thumbs.

"What is it darling?" she said smiling at Axel, and then looking him up and down. "And, who is your friend here?" she added, readjusting her shirt a little bit.

"This is Axel, an old_ colleague _of mine." Xigbar said slowly, putting emphasis on the colleague part. Susan nodded. "Oh, did you have to go to jail, too?" she said empathetically, and Xigbar snorted.

"Nope, he got off scot-free. He decided he was 'above' our 'criminal endeavors.'"

"Hey, I was with you all at first."

"As if. You we're out to get us the whole time."

"You should've told the rest of the team that Xemnas was planning on using all the money for himself."

Xigbar shook his head, shrugging his shoulders. "Whatever." He said flatly, and turned back to his future wife, asking her about the table covers they were going to have. Then Axel remembered the real reason that he'd come for in the first place.

"Hey, Xigbar?" he whispered when Susan had turned around. "Can I talk to you in private for a minute?" Xigbar looked skeptical for a moment, but then he nodded and signaled for Axel to follow him. He led the red head out a side door, and onto a wide terrace. Axel chuckled, taking in the beautiful view from where they were.

"You can see all of Disney Town from here, including the castle." Xigbar commented as Axel looked out across the landscape.

"Was it cheap to get this hall?" Axel asked, looking back at the beautiful building. Xigbar shrugged. "As if- it cost more than what you're worth- though that really doesn't account for much." Xigbar added on the end, looking over to see Axel's expression. Axel shook his head, chuckling. "Was this whole thing worth as much as that future bride of yours?" Axel commented bleakly, wondering what all the hoopla about 'weddings' really was. The girl that Xigbar was marrying wasn't anything _amazing._

Xigbar looked over at Axel like that was a personal insult. "She's worth more than anything in the world to me." Xigbar said passionately. "I'd do everything to make her happy. That's what you do for people you love. I forgot that all you do is meddle with people."

Axel looked back out into the sun that was setting off in the distance, frowning. He kept forgetting the point of the conversation. "Listen, Xigbar, believe it or not, I'm not here to mess with you. I just want some information."

Xigbar looked over at him questioningly. He obviously had not been expecting this turn of events. "Go on." He said slowly, eying Axel up and down suspiciously.

"I need information on an old member of the organization. She was fired by Xemnas. Her name was Xion." As Axel said this, Xigbar snapped up to attention. "If you want to know why she was let go, it was because she was gonna snitch on us. She told Xemnas that she would." Axel sighed with relief. Finally, someone knew something.

"No. I want to know where she came from." He said. To this, Xigbar drew a blank. "Only Xemnas would know that, I think." Axel exhaled. He had already asked Xemnas, and he said that he did not know. Maybe he was trying to hide something, though.

"Are you sure you can't remember a name or something? Was there anything that she used to talk about?"

Xigbar looked over him, a little bit irritated. "Well, it's not exactly like we hung out together." A light came on in Axel's head, and he gasped.

"That's it! Roxas would….know…" then he remembered that he couldn't ask Roxas for help. Roxas was that sure that Axel would never be able to find her. Then he remembered something- something that had lain dormant inside his mind for a while now. Xion had known Riku. Maybe, just maybe, she had told him something.

"Thanks, Xigbar." Axel nodded, and turned to go.

"Is that all? You just figure it all out and then leave? Is there not one single apology?"

Axel looked back at Xigbar, grinning. "You were the one in the wrong, ziggy. Just remember, if things hadn't turned out this way, you may not have met that fiancée of yours who you adore so much." With that, Axel exited the terrace, went through the double doors, and strode through the streets of Disney city, which was getting ready for an upcoming festival that it was going to be holding.

….

Riku sat back in a lawn chair in Sora's garden uncomfortably. The boy's mother was being way overly friendly to Riku, offering him drinks and cookies and stuff like that. He refused it all politely, and noticed that the woman was a little uncomfortable herself.

She'd seen Sora and Riku kissing in her back yard a few days ago, and it seemed like she couldn't get over it.

"So." She said, in an overly happy tone of voice. "You and Sora are pretty good friends."

Riku nodded. "Yeah, we are. We have been since before we were five."

Sora's mother clapped her hand over her mouth. "Oh, my!" she said in horror, and Riku began waving his hands in front of him, realizing what she thought he'd said.

"Oh, n-not like that at all! I mean we were _normal _friends. That is, up until a while ago. Things have kind of changed." He said, hoping things would continue to change to his benefit. He'd always liked Sora, but somehow he didn't think that Sora returned the same feelings as he did. Was it shallow for him to think that his friend was just going through an 'experimental' stage? Somehow he questioned Sora's 'go with the flow' attitude, and contributed it to the fact that he'd never really _really _liked anyone in his life.

The problem was that when someone showed interest in Sora, Sora always seemed to like them, too. Riku thought he knew what the real problem was. Sora never_ liked_ anyone; he just _thought_ that he did.

Kairi let fly 'I like you' vibes to Sora when they were fifteen and Riku was sixteen. Sora fell in love with Kairi after that, and all he would ever here about was Kairi. 'Kairi' this, 'Kairi' that, 'Kairi's so beautiful', 'Kairi's so smart', it went on for what seemed like forever, and finally when Kairi lost interest, Sora did too. Then, Riku finally got together the guts to tell Sora that he liked him, and suddenly, Sora liked him. If it had only been these two incidents, then Riku wouldn't have worried much, but it happened _all the time. _It was terrible.

Riku knew inside his heart that it wouldn't last, but he held on to the relationship anyway. But it seemed like Sora's mother was already planning for the 'hard future' ahead of them.

"I don't mind gays at all." She piped up nervously, looking down when Riku's eyes widened. "I mean they don't scare me like they do some people. I mean, of course my son being gay will probably help me through this, but, if he's feeling depressed, just tell him that mommy is here for him." Sora's mother began to get tears in her eyes, and she had to excuse herself from the scene for a moment. Riku sighed heavily, sitting back. What a life he had ahead of him. He heard a ring of the doorbell from inside, and Sora's mother croaked 'I'll get it'. Then, he noticed that her tone of voice got noticeably more cheerful, and looked around to figure out why. Then he knew.

Axel was following close behind her, looking around the house in an amused way. "Can I see Sora's room?" he said brashly, and Sora's mother looked a little bit taken aback. But, she acquiesced shortly, leading him up the stairs, with Riku following behind.

"His room is just in here." Sora's mother said heartily, letting Axel inside. "Oh, it's a bit dirty; I'll have to tell him that you came by." Sora's mother mentioned, picking up a pair of dirty underwear carefully and throwing them into the laundry hamper near Sora's door. Axel shook his head, grinning hugely. "It's okay; you don't have to tell him." Then he sat on Sora's bed as Sora's mother left him and Riku alone. Axel looked up at Riku mischievously.

"So Riku, how have you been? I tried your house, but you weren't there." Riku was surprised. Usually, people only came around to see Sora.

"What do you want?" Riku said, narrowing his eyes. He was very well aware of Axel's nature. So far, Axel had made one pass at him, which he shot down immediately. For a moment the idea struck him that Axel might've known that he was gay. This made him worry.

"I want to talk to you about Xion." Axel said abruptly, dispelling any of Riku's fears. Riku sighed with relief and thought about it.

"I remember her. I met her just after she'd figured out that her employers were going to blame a big scam on her. We thought up ways to bring the whole thing out in the open, and tell the authorities. It never happened though. The last time I saw her was after she got fired. She said that she had nowhere to go, and I said that I couldn't help her. She just went cold that moment, and nodded her head. Then she said to me, 'so I am all on my own?' And she left. I never saw her again."

Axel mulled this over in his head, sucking in a breath, getting ready to ask the real question he wanted to figure out.

"So, do you know where she might have gone?" Axel said, bracing himself for a 'no'. To his surprise, Riku thought for a moment, nodding.

"She said that she was going back to her old orphanage to get some old stuff."

Axel's head snapped up, and his heart began to beat faster. He finally had a lead. "Do you know what the name of this orphanage was called?" he snapped at Riku, clenching his fists in anticipation. Riku shook his head, and Axel's heart fell. He'd been so close.

"But Marluxia knows."

"What?"

"He was the one who met her at the orphanage."

Axel couldn't believe it. He'd asked Marluxia, and the man had given him a short no.

"Are you sure about this, Riku?" he said, not believing his ears. Riku nodded- certain of what he had said.

"Well, you've made my day." Axel said, sitting back on Sora's bed, and closing his eyes. Riku looked at him longingly. If only he could just let go of the tough guy persona he played. He'd always felt secretly inadequate beside Sora. His bluff was his only shield.

"Something on your mind, Riku?" Axel asked, noticing Riku looking at him. Riku snapped back into attention, looking out the window onto the beach. "No." he said quietly. They'd never gotten to use the raft they'd made together when they were younger. They had all been silly enough to think that together, they could brave anything that the sea threw at them. They were all so naïve back then.

Riku didn't notice Axel standing up and coming to sit beside him. He could just dispel all the lies right now. But something about Axel's attitude at the moment told him not to.

"You know, I like girls and boys."

"Yeah, the whole town knows by now." Riku said flatly, and then he noticed that Axel was looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry." Riku snapped abruptly "it just came out like that."

Axel shrugged and continued. "Over the years, I have realized that it's not good to hold back your feelings. It's taken a long time for me to even assess what my feelings were, but I have done it, and have come to a conclusion about myself."

Riku looked up. "What's that?"

Axel shrugged, and grinned at the boy beside him. "That's for me to know, and for you to stay out of. Try concentrating on your own philosophy of life. You're a smart kid who seems to have his wits about him. You look up to the task."

Riku nodded, continuing to look out onto the beach. Suddenly, he was moved to tears. He was so sad. Axel seemed to notice, and felt the need to lighten the mood.

"You wanna know about my childhood?" he offered up, and Riku chuckled.

"Not particularly."

"Well, I'll tell you anyway." Axel cut in, taking a deep breath in preparation for his short autobiography. "I was not the most attractive little kid, in any way. I was a lonely loner." He said sadly. Riku really did not get the point of any of this.

"I wasn't good looking. I wasn't smart. I wasn't charming. I wasn't outgoing. Basically, I was nothing like the man I am today. Then, I met this guy named Saix." He said, apparently going into flash back mode as he was staring into space for a couple of seconds before getting back to present time. Riku did not bother nudging him on the shoulder to try to get him out of lala land any sooner. He was afraid that Axel was gonna tell a sex story.

"I was about six years old, and he was seven. He was angry because he had a little brother that had just been born and that his mother was coddling over him instead of her. My mother was pregnant, at the time, and I was afraid that I would reach the same fate as he had. So, we decided to become friends, and stride alongside each other through thick and thin." Axel said happily.

"So, I got more confident, incredibly good looking, etc., etc. We both joined Organization Thirteen, a company that controlled the influx of money to the different cities in our area. After we figured out that the organization had been stealing money, he and I secretly planned to turn them all in- of course there would be a _self_-reward."

Riku snorted. "Good old Axel, always helping the community. How much money were you gonna take for yourself?"

"Not enough for anyone to miss. Anyway, I became friends with Roxas, then, who introduced me to Xion. After Xion was fired by Xemnas, the organization set their sights on Roxas to blame. After that, things changed between me and Saix, and we eventually lost the friendship we had. I lost a lot of the respect that I previously had for him." Axel finished, shrugging. "It's just the way things happen."

Riku was still a bit puzzled. "I never knew that you had a sibling!" he said, rather surprised. Axel nodded. "Yeah, his name is Lea. The funny thing is, the kid eventually made friends with Saix's little brother, Isa. Funny how things turn out, isn't it?" Axel chuckled, suddenly wondering about how his little brother was doing. He would be around Sora's age now. Then he remembered his other sibling.

"Well, anyway, this was a nice talk, but I've got to split. I'll have to go to Marluxia next. See you later."

Riku waved as Axel walked down the stairs, and out into the front room. Sora's mom was reading the paper. "Oh!" she said suddenly, seeing Axel in the hallway. "I see that you're leaving now?" she asked, opening the door for Axel as he stepped out.

"Yeah." He nodded, tipping his head in thanks. "Thanks for having me." Then, he walked back down the road.

He'd have to go talk to Marluxia again. He'd be at his flower shop around now. Axel turned around the corner from Sora's house, and went down towards the string of shops that Destiny Islands sported. At the end of this line of shops, was Marluxia's flower shop. When he got over there, he found Marluxia helping out an older female client.

"The various roses are all lined up over on that side, ma'am. Personally, the pink ones happen to be my favorite, but you're welcome to buy any type that you like. We have some nice poppies over there, if you're remembering a loved one that has passed, and we also have some exceptional new daisies that have just come in last week." He chirped on to the older woman, who looked like she knew nothing about flowers at all.

"Uh, I'll just look around for whatever type suits me best." She finally said, and Marluxia nodded at her.

"Oh here's a free flower chart- has the meanings of all the different flowers and colors, so you can pick the exact right one for you!" he gushed, handing over a small packet of papers to the woman, who laughed a little bit.

"To be honest, hon- I don't pay attention to any of those flower meanings. If it's pretty, I like it. All those definitions people give nature- it gets frustrating after a while, don't you think?"

Marluxia narrowed his eyes at her. "I am afraid that I have to disagree with that." He said curtly, and turned away from the woman. "I am keeping you from your 'quest' for the perfect flower."

The woman nodded, a little taken aback by his coldness, and stalked off to find her flowers. Axel chuckled as he noticed Marluxia savagely ripping open a cardboard box. He snickered as Marluxia turned around to help him. He was putting on his 'help the customers and be happy' face until he saw that it was Axel behind him. "What do you want?" he snarled at the red head in front of him, who amusedly put his hands up in surrender. "I just want to talk to you about something." Marluxia looked around at him glumly, then nodded and followed him out of the shop, taking off his apron and gloves as he went. "I know a good coffee shop that's just down the road; would you like to follow me there?" Marluxia snapped, looking behind him to see if Axel was still there. Axel nodded. "Of course, Luxie, your wish is my command." Then he saluted Marluxia, and started to follow behind him.

They went out the back door of the flower shop, and around the front and down the street. When they got to the coffee shop, Marluxia sat down expectantly. "What's that all about?" Axel laughed, looking down at Marluxia confusedly.

"You were the one who wanted to talk to me, you be the one to buy the drinks." Marluxia responded, smirking at him. Axel nodded, and walked towards the counter. "I see how it is…" he huffed, seeing how much everything was. He could choose between a 400 munny drink for Marluxia and a cheap dinner for himself that night.

Marluxia sighed heavily as Axel brought back two large glasses of water. "What a cheapskate." He commented, shaking his head.

"Hey, I'm the one getting you something." Axel snapped back, sitting down and shoving the water in front of Marluxia. He caught it easily, and took a sip.

"What is it that you want, Axel?" Marluxia drawled, examining the man across from him. Axel decided to get right to the point.

"I want to know about Xion."

"I told you Axel, time and time again, that I don't know about her."

"Riku was pretty sure that you were the one that got her from that orphanage she was in."

Marluxia smiled at him coldly. "And what orphanage would that be?"

Axel sighed, not wanting to play games. "I was hoping that you would know the answer to that question." Axel forced a smile as he said this, and Marluxia chuckled. Axel had just about had enough. He started to stand up to go, leaning in close to Marluxia's face.

"You know what, Marluxia? I think that I'll just get on one of those computers in the library and search the entire orphanage database myself to find out where she came from. I thought that you could help make my life easier, but I see that you're not in the helpful mood right at the moment."

As Axel stood up to leave, Marluxia stopped him with a few words.

"You won't find her without my help." He said lazily, looking at the water in front of him. Axel could not bring himself to sit back down. He hated it when Marluxia knew information that he didn't, it made him feel like the man had one leg up on him. Axel growled.

"You know what the funny thing is?" Marluxia asked with mock surprise. "The funny thing is that she is absent from any database. Her name was never put down for her orphanage. It seems as if all the events leading up to this time were just preparation for her to disappear." He ended, opening his hand as if something had flown out of it. Axel knew he was getting somewhere.

"Tell you what. I'll do this for you, because you're an old friend. But, I only ask for a small thanks for what I've done for you." He shrugged, looking up at Axel meanly. Axel sensed that something was wrong about him.

"First, I want you to buy me a drink." He said holding up his index finger. "Then, I want you to get Namine for me- and I will look after her from there. It is fitting, since I am the one who found her first." He finished with satisfaction. Axel looked at him incredulously.

"You want me to force Namine to stay with you?" Axel said uncertainly.

Marluxia nodded at him. "I help you save someone you want; you give me the person that I want. Girl for girl- how about it?" Axel looked at Marluxia with utter disbelief. "Is that all that you think of this situation?" he snarled. The way Marluxia was talking, he could tell why Namine didn't like him.

"Well, if you want to get technical, I could say girl for boy." He said slowly, looking on with glee as he noticed Axel getting angry.

"Just what the hell are you getting at, Marluxia?" Axel snarled, sitting down again. Marluxia grinned at him menacingly.

"Axel, don't be a fool. You know very well what I mean. Isn't this whole little scheme to nab that friend of yours- Roxas?"

Axel looked at him, horrified. "How did you know that?" he said- his voice sounding like he was being strangled. He looked like a little boy again. Marluxia chuckled, tracing circles around his water.

"Sex would have been so much more fun if you had have been this cute, Axel. I've never seen you so nervous and scared before."

Axel grabbed Marluxia by the shirt, and was about to punch him in the face, when he remembered where they were.

"I think that now would be a good time to buy me my drink." Marluxia whispered in Axel's ear. "Oh, you can get me the new spiced mocha." Axel looked on the board to see how much it was, gasping at the price. 600 munny for one drink? He looked back at Marluxia, seething with rage. Marluxia shooed at him, mouthing 'go on' playfully. Axel turned around, and savagely asked for one small spiced mocha. It was ready for him in five minutes, and he slammed it in front of Marluxia, who chuckled.

"How did you know about me and Roxas?" Axel growled at Marluxia, who sipped daintily at his drink.

"You were never good friends with that girl Xion. You always looked jealous of her when she was around Roxas more than he was around you. Then, you forgot about her with almost everyone else in the organization when she was fired. I knew that this little 'quest' for a nobody like her wasn't because you wanted to find her. It was because Roxas wanted you to find her. What, did he promise to be your boyfriend if you helped him find his lost princess? Because you do know that he'd kick you to the side lines the minute you'd bring her in the door, right?"

Axel looked down as Marluxia said this, feeling like the insecure child he had been when he was six years old. "You're a sick freak." He muttered weakly at Marluxia, who sat back with relish.

"Payback's a bitch, Axel." He sneered, smiling warmly afterwards. Axel could not even bring himself to look at the man.

"No."

Marluxia chuckled at Axel's response. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Go f*** yourself. I'm not helping you. Goodbye." He said, and stood up to leave the coffee shop.

"Oh, Axel" Marluxia said lightly, and Axel was drawn back around to look at him. Marluxia wasn't really smiling anymore.

"Just remember, you are exactly like the rest of us. All of the organization wants different things, and they will do anything to get them. Take for example Larxene." Axel snapped to attention when Marluxia said this.

"She wanted you, and she even used the fact that you wanted information out of her to get you beside her. Me, I want Namine. Most of the others want money, Roxas wants Xion, and you want Roxas. In a twisted way, Xigbar might be the most honorable person in all of organization thirteen. But Axel, I know that you will come back, because when organization thirteen wants something, they will do anything for it…even if it means ruining someone else's life." Marluxia finished softly, as Axel walked out the door.

…

Namine felt an ache in her heart that she could not quite comprehend. Then, a huge fear crept up her spine, and filled her heart with worry. Suddenly, without knowing what she was doing, she ripped all of the pictures that she'd made off the walls, picked up all of the presents that Leon had gotten for her, and ran down the cobwebbed stairs that led down from her white room. She knew that there was a light switch somewhere. Feeling around the walls, she finally located the switch. As she turned on the light, she noticed a huge spider crawling onto her hand, and she screamed as she shook it off. It fell onto the ground, and scurried off behind the wall.

Then Namine tapped various parts of the ground with her feet, seeing if there was a hollow plank or something. 'But that might be a little bit _too_ obvious.' She thought to herself. Everyone seemed to do that in the books, anyway. So, she removed an old dresser from one of the walls, and took out a small knife that she found inside of one of its drawers.

Slowly, she hammered the knife into the wall behind the dresser, and then she carved out a little square. She unscrewed one of the knobs from the old dresser, and re-screwed it into the piece of wall that she had cut off. After that she ran to the back of the house, and noticed the door on the closet that Ansem used to put her in when she miss behaved. With relish, she ripped it off its hinges (after unscrewing it) and unscrewed the metal hinges on the side of the door. Then, she rushed back into the dresser room with them, and re-screwed them onto the piece of wall. She then screwed that back into the wall, fashioning a little door. It was hollow on the inside, except for two old iron pillars sandwiched between wooden planks that were inside the wall (part of the skeleton of the house). Namine searched around for an old piece of wood, and settled for an old wooden serving tray, and screwed it to the two wooden planks on the inside of the hole (it was rather lopsided, because the tray was a little bit big to fit between the two pillars).

"Maybe I should carve a hole in the back of the dresser so that it will be able to hide the knob in the wall better." She said to herself, and clapping her hands, she did so. Then, she stood back happily, admiring all of her handy work.

She decided to scribble a little note, just in case anyone _did_ happen to find her stuff before she came back to take it with her.

_'Dear reader' _she wrote hastily, _'please do not sell these, as they are the property of Namine. If you are reading this letter, please have the grace to keep these little belongings of mine in a safe place, so that one day I shall be able to retrieve them again. Thank you, Namine.'_

She finished the note, and laid it carefully on top of her notebook. Then, she stacked all the colors that Leon had given to her on top of the note book, and tied the whole thing together with a string. She ran upstairs, and also got her lucky charm. She put that in a small bag she found on the floor, and tied it around the string, too. Just as she ran out to get paint to cover up the door with, she stepped on a loose plank of wood, and her foot fell through the floor.

When Namine tried removing her leg from between the wooden floor, she noticed that there was a room beneath her. She decided to try and squeeze herself through the floor, and she ripped another plank of wood off the ground from beside the other one, and she easily fell through, and into a room that she had never seen before.

It was full of various bottles and gadgets, and there were papers strewn all over the place. It looked like Ansem's old lab. Slowly, she went over to examine some old bottles that Ansem had. Most of them were old bottles of stuff that Ansem had already invented (he kept samples as keepsakes), but there were two bottles that Namine couldn't recognize.

One said 'anti-erode.' And the other said 'pro-erode.' There was a packet of papers under each one of them. On the top, it said 'naturally formed ingredients', and on the pro-erode 'do not touch- highly corrosive'. In the packet of papers was all the ingredients needed to make both substances, and where to find each ingredient. On the back of the packet were reasons why the two inventions would revolutionize the world today. One could be used to make sure infrastructures never collapsed or deteriorated, and the other could be used to break down waste.

Namine was sure that neither of these had ever been invented before. She took five bottles of each substance, and she also took the packet from each substance. She destroyed the rest of the left over substances by adding them together (they seemed to negate each other's effects), and then she destroyed the bottles that held them. She packaged the ten bottles and the two packets for the new substances up, and sent it up through the floor boards, followed by herself.

She put a few extra screws into the tray inside the wall, so it wouldn't break, and then she sprinkled a tiny bit of 'anti-erode' on either side. Within minutes the substance was dry, and she stacked all of the belongings of hers into the wall, closed it, and went to find some paint to paint over it with.

Just as she came back with the paint, she heard the fence that led to the mansion open. Panicking, she painted over the door, careful to hide it so it just looked like an old knob sticking out of the wall. She scrambled to put the floor boards back in place as the footsteps reached the front door, and she'd just moved back the dresser and switched off the lights by the time the front door slammed open.

When she saw that it was just Axel, she sighed with relief. "Hi Axel." She called out to him through the darkness, inching away from the dresser silently. Axel switched the light on, and noticed Namine awkwardly standing in the middle of the room.

"What are you doing in the dark like this?" Axel snapped at her. Namine noticed that he was battling with feelings inside of himself.

"Umm, I just figured that I'd do some cleaning." She tried weakly. Axel raised an eyebrow.

"In the dark?"

"Uh…you can kill the spiders better that way." She said slowly, laughing nervously after she'd finished. Axel looked at her closely for a moment, and then he shook his head, going up the stairs. "you like it here?" He said bleakly, looking around her white room.

Namine nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, yes, I love it here. I've never been so happy! I can finally draw what I want now! Ansem always said that my pictures held power, and sometimes when I drew something it would happen. He used to have me draw his latest products on shelves in the shop. Weird, right?" Namine really laughed this time, and it looked like Axel was almost in pain.

He pointed briskly to one of Namine's doodles that she'd left on the table. "What's this one? The girl with wings?"

Namine looked over his shoulders, standing on her tip toes so she could look properly. "Oh, that one's an angel I guess."

Axel shook his head as Namine said this, and she became confused, not knowing what to do. "I can't do it." He whispered to himself. Namine touched him on the shoulder affectionately. "What can't you do, Axel?" she asked, trying her best to comfort him. She liked him so much. Maybe _he_ was her angel.

Without a word, Axel ran down the stairs and out the door before Namine could even think of what to do. When she finally looked out the window to see where he was, he had already gone.


	5. Chapter 5

**Recap of last chapter; Axel is still trying to find Xion, and his quest leads him back to Marluxia, who makes a deal with him. He will give Axel information if Axel brings him Namine. Meanwhile, Namine decided to hide all of the colors Leon gave her inside the Mansion, and stumbles upon an invention Ansem has never shown to the world. Could this prove to her advantage? Will Axel choose to betray Namine and get information out of Marluxia, or is he really trustworthy enough for Axel to believe? Find out in this chapter! Also, an unexpected twist to the story comes up. Will this help or hurt Axel? Find out! **

Axel woke up to a loud ringing in his ear, and noticed that he had fallen asleep in his little living room last night. Gingerly, he slumped off of his couch, and went over to answer the phone. He was greeted by the voice that he hated the most.

"Hello, Axel." A man said politely. There was just a tinge of ego to it.

"What do you want?" Axel said groggily, half ignoring him. He wondered if their dad had been complaining to him about Axel's current situation.

"Dad's died."

Axel chuckled across the phone. He'd always done that to Axel when they were kids- telling him that his dad liked his older brother better than him, that his mother didn't love him. Their mother had died a little bit after Axel met Saix.

"I thought you got past those sick jokes when you moved out." Axel said slowly, rubbing the sleepy seeds out of his eyes.

"I'm not joking. Are you gonna finally be serious or not?"

"Why didn't you tell me before? You probably saw him before he died and 'forgot' to tell me didn't you?"

"Axel, he died of a heart attack. The paramedics called me because there's no one left to look after Lea."

"Where's the kid?" Axel said harshly, and he heard his brother chuckle sadly across the line. "Your little brother is still in the hospital, I called you so that you could go pick him up. I don't live in the country. You live a few cities away from him."

Axel felt tears in his eyes. Why was everything in his life spinning out of his control? "I can't support a little kid like that! I can't even buy myself dinner half the time!"

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "I'm writing out a check right now, and I'm gonna deposit it to the royal bank in Disney Town, where Lea lives. You can get over there on your own, right?"

Axel sighed heavily. He was being treated like a little kid again. "Yes, I can get there on my own." He said through gritted teeth. "But I don't like it that you're sending me money, I can look after myself."

"It's not for you, Axel. It's for Lea." The man on the other end of the line said coldly. Axel cringed. His brother always made him feel worthless.

"Well, I have to go out and mail this check. Father always said he wanted his funeral in his hometown, Neiblehiem." Axel shook his head. Great, now he needed a plane ticket.

"Mother's grave is already there, and he wants to be buried beside her. If you're worried about plane tickets now, I'll send you one of those, too- one for you and one for Lea."

Axel just nodded to this. Then, his brother said goodbye, and hung up.

He leaned back for a minute, into the kitchen chair that he was sitting in. Then, he slowly got up, put his jacket on, and lumbered out of his apartment, slamming the door behind him. He went to the train station without thinking, purchased a ticket to Disney City, then he sat back glumly as the train station whizzed by behind the window, and Destiny Islands faded off behind him.

He slept through all of the stops, and was shaken by the sound of the loudspeaker when the conductor finally shouted "ARRIVING AT DISNEY CITY!" Axel made his way off the train, taking in the scent of various food stalls being set up for a festival that was happening in a few days. He looked around to see where the bank was, and was surprised to find out that it was actually inside Disney Castle where the 'king' of the city lived. There was also a public library there. He went to the bank teller.

"Do you have an account, here?" the man asked Axel. He nodded. He hadn't put any savings into his account there in years. Their dad had opened it for them when he was ten years old.

"Yeah, account number 8888." He said quickly, tapping his fingers on the counter. The bank teller nodded, opening up his account for him. "How much is in there?" Axel asked looking around the room. It was huge, with marble floors and beautifully painted ceilings. It really was fit for a king.

"You have about 700 bank credits in there- which is 70,000 munny in our currency." Axel's jaw dropped to the floor when he heard this. Axel had been expecting, maybe 5,000 munny if he was looking after the kid for a couple of days. How long did his brother expect Lea to be staying with him?

His head began to swim with all the money that was in his account. That would pay his rent for two months.

"Was all of that just added in today?" Axel croaked. The man looked at his computer, and nodded. "Yes, well, there was 500 munny in there before." Axel chuckled. 500 munny- the equivalence of Marluxia's drink.

"I'll take out half of it." Axel sighed, getting worried already of having that much money in his pocket. He figured that his big brother wanted Lea to 'be comfortable' while he was 'on his own.' Axel's heart started to beat faster as he made his way up to the hospital where his brother was staying.

He walked slowly and deliberately up to the double doors, and sucking in a deep breath, he barreled inside, startling a nurse that was about to walk outside for her lunch break. "Sorry." Axel mumbled as he stalked past her, looking around for the front desk.

"Uh, sir? Do you need help?" A doctor touched him on the shoulder, looking at Axel's worried expression with reserved sadness. "I recognize that flaming red hair. Are you that boy Lea's brother?" he said sadly. Axel nodded, and the man held out his hand for Axel to shake. "I'm your father's doctor. Poor Lea had just come home from being out with his friends, and he saw his father, dead on the ground. He called you yesterday after he'd gotten to the hospital to talk to you, it must have been-"

"-No one ever called me yesterday. I checked my messages." Axel responded. The doctor furrowed his eyebrows. "Then- are you not the Reno he's been talking about?" The suddenly cold gaze of the doctor irritated him. "My name is Axel. I've come to pick Lea up." Axel said in the nicest manner he could. "Oh." The doctor said flatly.

"Then you'll have to check in at the front desk." He continued after a moment's pause, and began to lead Axel towards the front desk.

"Reno told me that I was to pick up my little brother, because he lives in Nibelheim now. It's a plane ride away, and anyway he's organizing my dad's funeral right now over there, so, he can't come and look after Lea…" Axel got the impression that the doctor wasn't entirely listening to him, so he stopped talking, and silently followed him to the desk.

"Unna." He said to the woman at the front desk. "Would you be so kind as to check this young man in? And can you check his records. Were you born in this hospital young man?" he said abruptly to Axel, and Axel nodded.

"Great, that means that you can get a free lunch at the cafeteria for today. It's in celebration of the festival, but a donation to the hospital would be greatly appreciated all the same." The doctor added in at the end. Axel nodded again as Unna gave him a 'visitor' sticker, and the doctor lead him up the stairs, and down a winding hallway and into a waiting room. Lea was in there, sleeping. Every few seconds, he would stir, and mutter something.

"I'll just wake him up." The doctor said, shaking Lea's shoulder. "Lea, your brother is here to take you home." The doctor said kindly to Lea, who rubbed his eyes, and looked enthusiastically around the room, and then his eyes settled on Axel. "Who're you?" he said bleakly, and Axel's eyes widened as the doctor looked suspiciously at him.

"I'm Axel." Axel muttered, scowling at Lea. "Your brother."

"Why isn't Reno here?" Lea said shakily, obviously getting upset. Axel had no time for crybabies.

"Reno lives in a different country, Lea. He can't just hop on a plane and come and pick you up."

"He said that I may have to live with you." Lea said sadly, and Axel gasped.

"He said _**what**__?" _Axel snapped, and Lea suddenly fell at his knees.

"Please don't make me move from our house into your stinky old apartment! If you do, I'll run away and live with Isa's family!"

Axel rolled his eyes. Begging and then threatening. Who did this kid think he was?

"How about we go down to the cafeteria and get you some lunch?" Axel said with forced happiness, trying his best to be nice to the brother he didn't know very well.

Lea shook his head. "That food sucks. I want some real grub." Then he patted his stomach. Axel shrugged. The money wasn't for him anyway.

"Fine." He said huskily, leading Lea down the stairs, through the lobby, and out the front doors of the hospital. "Where do you want to go?" he said to Lea, turning around. He was horrified to see that the kid was crying. It made him feel like crying himself. He couldn't deal with all this crap!

Awkwardly, Axel tried patting Lea on the head, but the 15 year old punched his hand. Axel had had enough, so he pulled Lea by the scarf he was wearing around his neck, and leaned in close to him.

"Listen, kid- I'm grieving too. I don't like the idea of you following me around, either. So let's just work together, until Reno comes and takes you off my hands." He growled at Lea, who cowered back unhappily.

"Reno loved me way more than you do." Lea said quietly, looking off down the street.

"I hardly know you." Axel snapped back. Lea looked at him incredulously for a second, but then he wiped the tears out of his eyes, and followed Axel silently.

They ate in a little restaurant down the road from Axel's old house, and Axel told Lea that he could get whatever he wanted. He got a dish that cost 5,000 munny (the equivalent of a day at the beach for four people) and a coke. Axel got a cup of soup for less than 1,000 munny, and a glass of water.

After that Lea said he wanted to go to a bakery for desert. Axel shrugged and said sure, and the kid bought a large hot chocolate and a piece of chocolate cake. As he was enjoying his cake, Axel looked down at him, and smirked.

"What're you smiling at?" Lea said through a mouth full of cake. Axel shrugged.

"Nothing- I was just thinking what fine food we've been eating."

Lea nodded happily "Yeah."

"You know, it was really nice of Reno to send me over all that money so that I could get all this food for you." Axel said slowly, letting it sink into Lea's brain.

Lea looked up with disbelief. "Reno paid for all this food?" he croaked, looking guiltily down at his huge piece of chocolate cake, and then he noticed how Axel hadn't gotten anything for himself.

Axel nodded. "Reno told me to let you get whatever you wanted, no matter how expensive. I just don't like spending other people's money on myself, so I didn't get anything huge." Axel added in, noting Lea's sagging shoulders.

Lea pushed the rest of his cake over to Axel, with his head still bowed over. "I don't want the rest now." He looked up to see Axel chuckling.

"You can't just take it back now. Then you'll be _wasting _all the money that your brother gave for you." As Axel said this, Lea started to cry again.

The only way that Axel could tell this was by the tears rolling down Lea's face; otherwise he was completely silent and motionless. It made Axel feel terrible.

"Sorry." Axel murmured, and then asked for a to-go box for the cake.

They walked silently back out of the bakery, then Lea asked if he could get some of his stuff from his old house before they set off for Axel's.

As soon as they got to the street where Axel's old house was, he started feeling dread. Lea developed a skip in his step, and led Axel cheerfully up the front steps, and into the house. As soon as Lea got inside, he began to hum nervously, and he briskly walked past the kitchen, looking straight towards the stairs leading up to his room. Axel turned, and surveyed the place where the whole family used to eat together.

He got a flashback of Reno earnestly trying to feed the 'new baby Lea' his dinner. He smiled as he remembered Lea spitting it out all over Reno's new shirt. He never tried to feed the baby after that.

Then, Axel's stomach turned inside out. He bent down to examine the corner of one of the cupboards, and noticed that there was a little bit of blood on the end of it. He looked down at the ground, and noticed that there was an almost unnoticeable dent in the wood on the floor, and a little smear of blood on one side. Suddenly, an image of his father burst into Axel's head.

His father was in the kitchen making lunch, and then he held his chest in pain, breathing irregularly. Then, he was keeling over, hitting his head on the corner of the cupboard, drawing blood. He was calling out for Lea weakly, then Reno, and then Axel, but no one was coming to help him. Then, Lea was rushing in, picking him up gently, crying and yelling for someone.

Then Axel was running outside, running out of the house, out of the garden, and down to the edge of the road. He threw up near the stop sign, and sat down, wiping his mouth. "Get a grip, Axel." He said to himself, chuckling weakly. After sitting for a few seconds, he got up, and sprayed the area around the stop sign down with one of the neighbor's hoses.

When he went back inside the house, Lea was waiting for him at the top of the stairs that led up to the bedrooms. Axel looked up at him tiredly.

"Are we ready to go?" Lea said, holding a little duffel bag with his most important belongings inside of it. Axel ignored him, and walked past him up the stairs. Then, he rounded the corner, and opened the door to his old bedroom. It was still all the same as it had been when he'd left. Suddenly, he thought of Namine, and shook his head sadly. He couldn't believe that he had considered giving her to Marluxia to find Xion. "I won't betray you again." He said to himself sadly. He would just have to find out where she came from by himself, without Marluxia's help. Or maybe he would just let it go. He heard Lea go out the front door, and knew that he was now alone in the house where he grew up. He didn't have anyone to comfort him anymore.

Bending his shoulders over and resting his face in his hands, Axel began to sob.

…..

Xion awoke from her troubled sleep, still lying on the kitchen floor. Her boyfriend was standing over her. "Get up." He said flatly, and Xion did as she was told. "You have five minutes to pack together everything that you want to bring with you. Start now."

Xion scrambled up off the ground, and went to find everything that was important to her. She brought a jacket, some clothes, and an extra pair of shoes with her, along with her toiletries, and some old trinkets she'd collected over the years.

"Here's some money that you can use." The silver haired man said to her.

"Where am I going?"

"To my father's house."

"I thought that we couldn't move until that legal thing was sorted out." Xion said nervously.

The man shook his head. "_**I **_can't move until it's sorted out. But you can." The man replied, and sent Xion out the door, where an attendant was waiting for her. "Come with me." the man said in a deep voice, adjusting his tie. Xion reluctantly followed him out of the house, and towards the train station, where they bought a ticket to Twilight Town. The man watched Xion's every move, and wouldn't let her go anywhere by herself.

At the outskirts of Twilight town, there was a small beach, and an airport. There weren't a lot of people there around this time, and the first effects of utter loneliness began to set over Xion.

"Flight 974, going to Nibelheim, is boarding in fifteen minutes." The man looked up when he heard this on the loudspeaker, and signaled for Xion to follow him with her tiny carry-on bag. She was scared in a place like this.

They went up to the terminal that they were due at, and Xion boarded the plane alongside the strange man. He never talked to her once during the whole flight, and he didn't bother to look at her more than once, when she needed to go to the bathroom.

"We now welcome you to Nibelheim!" the air hostess gushed over the loud speaker, and Xion whimpered. She heard the man beside her chuckle, and she began to feel a sincere dislike for him.

He led her out of the plane and into the baggage claim area, where you were able to leave the airport. A man with short silver hair was waiting for them outside, and he bore an uncanny resemblance to Xion's boyfriend. The man that had been on the plane with Xion suddenly tightened his grip around her arm, as if he was sure that she was going to run away.

"I see you have brought my dear brother's fiancée." The silver haired man said coldly, smiling down at Xion. It gave her the chills. "He didn't propose to me." Xion muttered, and the man sighed. "Silly me, I ought not to have told you. I suspect that with all that has been going on lately, he just didn't get around to it." He said with a sad voice, but his eyes bore no emotion.

He held out his elbow for Xion to take, and she did so reluctantly. She watched as the man who had accompanied her there disappeared into the crowd behind him, and she squeezed the man's arm that she was holding unconsciously.

"Nervous?" he commented abruptly, and Xion loosened her hold on him. "Yeah." She said flatly.

"My brother has told us many things about you." He said, looking into her eyes. Her heart started to beat faster, and she wondered if he had one at all. "He said that you were like a weasel that needed to be tamed." He chuckled as he said this, and Xion's blood boiled.

"Here is the car." The man said serenely, and opened the door for Xion.

"Car?" she squeaked. She had never heard of a _car _before. The train that went through all the cities was the only mode of transportation where she had come from.

The man chuckled again, and shoved her into the vehicle.

They drove on for what seemed like hours, until they came up to a dreary old house on the outskirts of the city. It reminded her of the old Mansion in Twilight Town, except much more sinister.

"Please step out of the car." The man said when they had stopped in front of the house. Three other men stepped out from the shaded porch, and walked slowly towards the vehicle.

As the man who had driven Xion there helped her out of the car, he noticed a few bruises on her arms. His eyebrow rose. "Has my brother been mistreating you?" he said in mock sadness. Xion pulled her arm out of his grasp. "I'm alright." She said abruptly, looking away. "That wasn't what I asked." The man commented coolly. Then, she felt him lean in close to her ear. "I could look after you." He whispered cuttingly in her ear. Xion stepped back quickly, very frightened, and fell down. Two of the three men on the porch ran over to help her up, and she quickly got up herself before anyone could reach her. "I'm fine." She snapped shakily, grabbing her small bag off of the ground. "I'm just fine."

The three men stood in front of her, bowing. She bowed back, and clutched her bag to her stomach.

The man who had brought her to the house acted as if nothing had just happened, and went to stand next to the other three.

"These are my brothers, Yazoo and Loz. I am Kadaj, and this is our_ father_, Hojo."

The man named Hojo nodded at her, and as his eyes lingered on her, she felt that he was not a nice man at all. There was something sinister about him. She decided to stay away from him.

"How long will you be with us?" Yazoo said calmly. Xion shrugged. "Until my boyfriend comes back, I guess."

"Ah, yes." Kadaj said quietly. "Our _brother_." He said uncomfortably, like he was not used to calling him that. For some reason, Xion got the feeling that the three men with silver hair were hiding something. They looked too young to be her boyfriend's brothers. And she didn't believe that they were.

"Let me show you your room." Yazoo said airily, and led her up a long staircase that opened out into a long hallway. "It's this one on the left." He said, opening on of the bedroom doors. Xion gasped. The bedroom was beautiful, with pale blue walls, beautiful wooden floors, and a white ceiling. The bed had a dark oak canopy, and white fluffy sheets. She had a bedside table with a notebook and a box of pens beside it, and some books underneath it.

"We thought you might grow tired with nothing to do, so we have provided you with books, and a notebook to write your feelings in. There are also new clothes in the dresser on the other side of the room; brother told us that you were lacking proper articles of dress. Good day." And with that, Yazoo left.

Xion looked at the clothes in her dresser. They were beautifully made, handcrafted with intricate patterns of silk and lace. She put them all back and sat down on her bed. It was beautiful, but it was not right.

She looked at the front of her notebook, then reached over and opened the box of pens. Slowly, she began to write something in the first page.

"_I don't like it here. I feel like the walls are watching me, keeping a close eye on what I am doing. Beautiful room, but it doesn't feel nice at all. I am in a cage, and I feel like I will never escape. Someone help me, help me please!" _

She ripped the piece of paper out of the notebook, balled it up, and threw it out the window with all her might. It landed on the road, and the wind blew it down the pathway leading up to the house. Down it tumbled, until it was out of sight.

….

Lea set his bag down in Axel's dingy little apartment, taking in his surroundings with poorly disguised disgust. Axel shut the door behind them both, and stood uncomfortably in the door way, waiting for Lea to say something. When he didn't, Axel coughed loudly, and rushed past him to his bedroom.

"Here, you can sleep in here." He said quickly, pointing to the room. "Just don't expect total privacy, because I've got to come in to get my clothes sometime."

Lea shook his head, moving back into the living room. "It's alright. I'd rather sleep on the couch, anyway." He said glumly, plopping down onto the saggy old piece of furniture. Axel sighed. "Well, I'm gonna be out pretty much the whole evening, would you be alright on your own for a few hours?" Lea nodded, playing with the scarf around his neck.

Axel stalled, waiting to see if Lea would say anything else, but the boy didn't. "Fine" Axel said abruptly, and then he said a short goodbye.

"You can order whatever you want, there's a list of places that you can order from by phone in the kitchen." Axel added, setting some money in front of Lea, who just nodded in acknowledgement. Axel didn't want this awkward onslaught to continue any longer, so he just let it be, and walked out of the house, locking the door behind him.

He couldn't think of where to go, so he just sat at the bottom of the doorstep, trying to figure things out. He decided that he knew where he would go. Using the last of the money that he had, Axel got on the train one more time, and commenced the journey to the City That Never Was. He actually had to go on one train, whose last stop was Disney City. Then he had to go to Royal Disney station in the center of town, and get on the train whose very last stop was the City That Never Was.

It took him about three hours to get to his final destination, and he was very tired by the time he stepped off the train. He had paid for a round trip, and had to ask to borrow a few munny from a passerby. It was embarrassing, but it was gonna get him back home, so he braved up, and asked. The man seemed extremely unwilling to help, but he eventually dropped a few coins in Axel's hand, as if he was helping a tinker.

The City That Never Was was mainly a nightclub city. Over one hundred clubs dotted the landscape, and they catered to almost everyone's needs. But, on the far corner of the city, there was an old art museum, and then behind that were rows of run down apartments that housed the employees that worked in the clubs and bars. There was also a lot of crime in this city, uncharacteristic of the rest of the happy country. It was as dismal as it was lively, where people could travel to take themselves away from the rest of the world and 'live it up.' A lot of young people came there.

Axel walked down past the art museum, and past the apartments, not really knowing where he was going. He felt like wallowing in his past right now. When he came to the edge of the city, he had been walking for two hours, and he had no idea that _this _part of the city was _part of the city_. It was as if all of the concrete of the city fell within a border, and the building before him marked the crossing point.

Just behind the building, there was a jungle of trees and sounds. It looked like it was about to swallow the house up. The concrete sidewalk under Axel's feet gave way to a soggy dirt road, and he walked up to the building with curiosity. On the front of it, it said 'The Orphanage That Never Was.' Axel chuckled as he read the name. It would be just that in a couple of months if the jungle behind it was still growing the way it was. It looked like it was hugging the back of the house. Axel stood, admiring the bleakly dismal view, when a stern old woman walked out the front door of the building, and stopped in front of Axel.

"No loitering." She snapped at him, and Axel chuckled.

"I was just wondering if you knew anything about a girl named Xion." He was certain that this was the orphanage that she had come from. Marluxia's idea that she wouldn't be on the orphanage database floated into his head, but he expelled it quickly before it set root and worried him. The woman furrowed her eyebrows. "I know the names of every child that has spent time within these buildings walls, and the name Xion, I have never heard before."

Axel looked around, and then an idea popped into her head. "Was there a girl named Namine who stayed here at one point?" he asked with sudden curiosity. The woman, to Axel's surprise, nodded.

"Yes, I can never forget that name. She came one day out of the blue and went right back into it, trailing after a pink haired man that wanted to adopt her. I have never heard from her since. She was a sad, quiet girl- almost always drawing. She never told anyone her past, and she never had any friends. All the other children would play without her, and she'd sit looking at them all longingly. She was a very lonely girl."

Axel had never known that side of Namine. He looked up at the building sadly. He had a family, however mashed up it was by now. But Namine had no one who_ really_ loved her.

"She was easy to use because of her desire for friendship- that's why she always got herself into so much trouble." Axel commented sadly, reflecting on Organization Thirteen's past. The old woman looked at him strangely.

"You know her? How is she?" she asked.

Axel nodded without thinking about it. "She's okay." He lied, suddenly guilty about how he'd mistreated her and left her on her own.

"Do you want to come in?" the woman offered, but Axel shook his head. "No thanks." He said, bowing, and then he walked off as the woman went back inside. When he was sure that she was out of sight, he darted around the back of the house, looking at the jungle behind him. It was very scary in a way, and Axel could feel thousands of eyes looking out at him. He shivered. Then, he began to poke around the sides of the house, looking for nothing in particular, but hoping for something to happen that would lead him to Xion. Suddenly, his foot found a hollow space in the wall, and it got stuck. Axel cringed at the crunching sound the wood made when his foot went through it. He looked around worriedly, expecting the old woman to hobble out after him with a cane in hand.

Slowly, he de-wedged his foot from the wood, and bent over, examining the hole that he had left behind. There was a small piece of paper inside, and he chuckled, pulling it out and reading it.

'_Mother-Eva Nakamura? Deceased- _

_Xion Nakamura?' _

Axel went cold as he read this, feeling a sense of foreboding. He had a name to follow, now. But was it right?

'_Organization Thirteen- job wanted _

_Plane ticket; 100,000 munny to Midgar_

_Cerise Devin- poisonous_

_Truffles- hard to find…market price=up to 999,000 munny_

_White paopu fruit- extremely rare…market price= up to 2,000,000 munny!'_

Axel scratched his head, putting the note down for a second to try and comprehend it. At first glance, it just looked like a bunch of scribbles. From the sounds of it, Xion wanted to get a plane ride out of the situation that she was in. Axel laughed sadly. Even before she joined the Organization, Xion had wanted to get away. Then, he decided to read on to the end.

'_Hide stuff before warden throws it away! _

_White paopu- follow tip, open sesame.'_

That was the end of the small jumble of reminders and notes that Xion had left for herself. Axel felt his heart beat a little bit faster than before, and he knew that the last note meant something important. And he knew that the answer lied within the jungle of vegetation behind him.

Slowly, trying to be brave, Axel ventured inside. He knew that he was being stupid, going inside a jungle at night, but he had to find out where Xion was. He felt like it was at the tip of his nose.

Upon entering the forest, Axel looked in his pocket for the small book light he carried around. When he switched it on, he shivered. The jungle looked even scarier with just a little bit of light cast in it at night. Axel couldn't shake the feeling that the whole jungle was watching his every move. As he walked further inside, his foot hit against something that was meticulously half buried under a tree in front of him. He cursed under his breath, and looked down at the object. He braced himself for it to be a human body part- like a hand, or a head or something- but when he looked down, he exhaled in relief. It was just a paopu fruit. He shone his light on it, and it reflected back to him pure white, with little beads of silver dew all over it.

It was buried upside down, and Axel took out the piece of paper he'd found at the side of the orphanage once more. '_White paopu- follow tip, open sesame.'_ He read to himself. He looked down at the paopu again, shrugging his shoulders. "Might as well give it a try." He said to himself, and hoisted the paopu out of the ground.

He dropped it in horror when he saw what was crawling around in the other side. Heaps of maggots feasted on the inside of the paopu fruit, and Axel bent over it, looking on with disgust as they climbed over one another, fighting to feed on the flesh of the rare fruit. Axel also noticed that there was a string attached to the tip of the paopu fruit, and he picked it up following the line through the forest. He decided to unhook the paopu fruit and bring it with him, so he tied the knot originally around the tip of the fruit, onto one of the roots of the tree. Then he set off deeper into the forest, careful not to let any of the maggots on the paopu fruit get onto his skin. Finally, the line led to an old tree stump.

He remembered the note. "Open Sesame." He tried to say grandly, but of course, nothing happened. Then, he noticed a small indentation made into the trunk, and without thinking, he shoved the paopu fruit into it. There was a click on the inside of the trunk, and then the top fell inside. Axel gingerly put his hand inside the trunk, and felt around. His hand closed around a small tin box.

He felt around, but the box was the only thing inside the trunk. Then, he took the box, and hastily followed the string back to where he had started his search. Sitting just inside the forests boundaries, he wiped the dirt off the top of the box, and stuffed it under his shirt. Then, just as he stood up, a light was shone over him. It was the old woman in charge of the orphanage.

"What are you doing back here?" The woman snapped, and Axel scrambled out of the forest behind her.

"I'm really sorry, ma'am. I was just curious."

The shadows on the woman's face looked eerie in the light of the lamp that she held in front of her. "Don't you know that children have disappeared in that forest for centuries? You're an idiot, going in there at night." She snapped, as Axel maneuvered around her. She was a creepy old crone when the moon came out.

"Well, thanks for the advice, I'll see ya later." The woman looked on as Axel walked backwards, down the dirt road, continuously keeping an eye on her. When he got back onto the concrete sidewalk, he turned around, and broke into a run, whizzing past the apartments, and back into the city center. It took him twenty minutes less than when he had walked, and he was glad to be away from that mysterious, creepy part of town.

Axel went back to the metro; careful not to get caught in too many places alone as he journeyed there (mugging was common during the night, here). Once he was on the train, he pulled the tin box out from under his shirt, and he began to open it, brushing off bits of rust that came loose as he did.

Inside were a notebook, a few photos, and dozens of letters, all addressed back to Xion. Axel took out the letters, and began to read them.

'_Dear Xion, _

_I can't tell you how glad I am to hear from you. Life has been so dismal up to now. My life story is rather bleak and a young lady like you would not like to hear about my childhood. But, I am curious to know about yours. Where were you born? What city did you grow up in? How long have you worked for this 'organization thirteen'? I am very curious. Please tell me everything about you. _

_It makes me indescribably happy to see your letters in my mailbox…' _

Axel shook his head. What a soppy guy. He skipped to an interesting looking card, skimming down until a part interested him.

'_Happy Anniversary, Xion,_

_Today, a year ago, we met in Midgar. I felt that it was the happiest day of my life. I have grown bored, though, with my surroundings, and have applied for different jobs in different places. I have a list of them, and we can discuss them today when you come home from school. Don't feel indebted to me because I am helping you pay for your tutelage, but you would make me very happy if you would just promise to never leave my side. My past tears me apart sometimes, and I know that I have often taken my anger out on you. I am so sorry. _

_But this isn't the time for sad stories, I wrote this to say that I love you._

_Here are a few places that I have considered to go to work at: _

_Deling City…'_

Axel skimmed down until one particular city caught his eye, surprising him greatly.

'_Hollow Bastion.' _

Axel skimmed down to the end of the letter, reading carefully.

'_Please choose a place that would be best for both of us. I will go there first, and then I will send you over after I am settled, and pick you up at the train station in the city you choose. _

_ I will forever love you,_

_ Sephiroth_


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay, guys! If you have kept reading through this whole thing- I thank you from the bottom of my heart! This chapter is bloody long! It's the longest chapter of them all- but I think that the 7****th**** chapter is gonna be the last one. Recap; something happens that throws Axel back together with his family, Sephiroth sends Xion back to his 'hometown' (haha, foreshadowing of something in this chapter?) and Axel finds out more about Xion. Keep reading! The end is neah! (That is near in a weird accent) READ ON! :D**

Kairi stormed down the stairs and into the living room where the mayor, her father, was entertaining guests. He looked over at her, smiling at her, but then he grimaced in horror when he saw what she was wearing.

"Kairi!" he exclaimed. "What in the world are you wearing?"

Kairi puffed out her chest, pursing her lips and looking straight at her father.

"Daddy, I'm leaving. I'm tired of being 'the mayors' daughter. I'm going to find myself!" She ended, grinning. Her father scowled at her, and led her out of the living room and back into the kitchen where the chef was sleeping.

"Kairi, this is really no time to work yourself into a teenage crisis. I have guests over and you're embarrassing me! Those white things on your legs look like underwear, and the neon green top is a bit much, don't you think?" then he looked more closely at one of her wrists, gasping.

"Is that a _tattoo?" _he cried, looking at Kairi as if she had committed a grave crime. Kairi blushed. She had not meant for him to see _that. _

"Don't worry about me, daddy. I'll be back someday. And we will understand each other mutually, like fellow adults."

Kairi's father looked at her like she was nuts. "It's that boyfriend of yours, isn't it?" he growled, waggling his finger at her threateningly. "Don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about! I should have never have given you the free space you have had! I saw the boy you were running around with, but I felt compelled to leave you be, because I thought you were a level headed girl!"

Kairi shook her head, and walked out the door, ignoring her father's screams behind her.

She went out of the house with a small shoulder bag she'd already packed, and ran down towards the train station. It took about three hours to get to the City That Never Was, where her boyfriend lived and worked.

The minute she got off the train, she hurried down to the nightclub that he played his music at, and squeezed in among the many people crowded around the hall.

Demyx was playing his guitar, along with a band full of members she didn't know. He was doing the singing, too. He was pretty good. As soon as he spotted Kairi, he pointed to her, and the spotlight fell down on her. As if by magic, the crowd crushing in around her dispersed, and Demyx started to sing again, looking at her the whole time. When he was finished, he pulled her on stage, and held her beside him by the waist.

"Give a big round of applause for our drummer, Short Round, bass guitarist, Murdoc, our sound expert, Milk&Sugar, and our lead guitarist, Demo-" A roar came up from a group of girls as Demyx pointed to himself "-and also, to a special guest…My smokin' hot girlfriend, Kairi!"

The whole hall gave a roar of applause for the whole band, and Demyx kissed Kairi center stage. Then the whole band waved goodbye, and took apart their set in preparation for Blast, the next band that was coming on. Demyx talked with the other band members while Kairi sat awkwardly, waiting for Demyx to come over. She really hoped that he wouldn't delay their weekend get-away to buy all the guys some drinks. He could be like that sometimes. It was already 10 o'clock at night. They needed to get on the road.

"Hey Kairi, do you mind if we all just go out for a drink before we leave? I won't see these guys for a while."

Kairi breathed out through her nose, and nodded amicably. They wouldn't be getting out till at least 1 o'clock, now.

Demyx put his hand around Kairi's shoulder, kissing her on the cheek. "If you had have come earlier, I could have let you sing a song. Can't do that now, though." He said, pouting at her. Kairi couldn't help but laugh, and they went into a bar down the street. Kairi got just a tad bit nervous. She _was _only sixteen, anyway. She always got scared that she might get caught and thrown out. But Demyx wasn't nervous at all.

"Drinks on me!" he was about to scream, but Kairi kicked him in the leg, and he changed the last word to Short Round.

"Why me?" the drummer cried, and the rest of the party laughed heartily.

"Because you never buy the drinks, Shorty."

"You shouldn't be saying that, Murdoc." Everyone laughed again, and Murdoc put his hands up, and said that he'd buy the drinks. Everyone else got beer, but Kairi opted for an Orangina. Demyx smiled painfully at her as Kairi sipped on her nonalcoholic drink.

"What are you looking at?" She snapped, and Demyx shrugged. The rest of the band was looking at her. She looked around at them one by one, and as she did they all looked away a little bit awkwardly as the rest of the drinks came out.

"Well, cheers to everyone, for another great performance!" Milk&Sugar blurted out to break the ice (his real name was Michael Steffen). He didn't like awkward silences.

"Yeah, cheers to Mickey!" they all roared, tapping glasses, and Michael laughed heartily.

Within an hour, everyone was drunk except Kairi, and a few girls that Kairi was sure none of the boy's new joined the table.

Within two hours, Demyx and Shorty had taken over the microphone at the front of the bar, and began to sing some old songs.

Within three hours, they all were drunk out of their mind (except Demyx, who honorably stayed out of the heavy drinking for Kairi's sake) and were all seriously close to getting kicked out of the bar.

They did a countdown to 2 o'clock and roared hysterically when the clock chimed softly on the hour.

Kairi pinched Demyx' hand, signaling for him that they should get going, and they all said goodbye, parting ways.

"Maybe we should just go tomorrow." Demyx said, exhausted already. Kairi shook her head. "We are not postponing our trip because you partied too much." Demyx shrugged, and signaled for Kairi to come with him. They went into and old, forlorn building and Demyx went over to stand in front of an imposing creature that Kairi had never seen in her life.

"What's that?" she said uncertainly.

"It's called a car. I got it from an old friend of mine. How about we give you a quick driving lesson?" Demyx asked, and Kairi nodded excitedly.

Slowly, she seated herself in the car, and Demyx showed her the gears and what to do to drive the vehicle. They practiced for two hours, and then they began to drive off.

"Why am I driving?" Kairi piped up, looking down the road without an exceptional amount of concentration.

"Because you're the one who didn't get drunk. Good night." Demyx cooed at her from behind her seat, and she huffed, irritated. Of course _she _had to do everything.

Kairi took out a small map in the glove compartment, and decided where she wanted to go.

"Nibelheim okay?" She chirped, but Demyx was fast asleep. "I'll take that as a yes." She added to herself, pulling into a different lane.

They drove on for what seemed like years, until Kairi's eyes started to droop. Just as she looked out onto the road again, trying to concentrate, she thought she saw something white scuffle across the road in front of her. She screamed, and the car skidded to a halt.

"What's going on?" Demyx shouted suddenly, trying to stand and then hitting his head on the car ceiling.

Kairi shook her head, and got out of the car to see what was going on. She sighed when she saw that the white thing was a piece of paper. Picking it up, she unfolded it, and read it out loud as Demyx came up beside her.

"_I don't like it here. I feel like the walls are watching me, keeping a close eye on what I am doing. Beautiful room, but it doesn't feel nice at all. I am in a cage, and I feel like I will never escape. Someone help me, help me please!"_

Demyx was quiet behind her, and Kairi handed him the piece of paper. He scanned it, frowning, and then he gave it back to her. "Wow that is really creepy. Where do you think it came from?"

Kairi looked around behind her, and noticed a house looming in the background. Demyx gasped, and then moved back towards the car. Kairi crossed her arms as he got into the driver's seat and started up the car.

"You're just gonna leave the poor girl who wrote this stranded in that house?"

"We don't know if there is a girl in that house. It could be anything."

"You're just creeped out. You're a coward."

Demyx cursed as he tried to start up the car time and time again.

"We're stuck in mud, smart ass." Kairi sneered at him, and he looked out accusingly at her. "You're the one who stopped the car to look at a piece of paper, we wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't have gone and stopped the car! Reminds me of this one scary movie I saw…"

Kairi rolled her eyes, and got back inside the car, shutting the door behind her. "Let's just sleep here for the night." She said, kissing Demyx. He smirked at her, and then pulled her into the backseat gently.

"It would ease my mind if we… y'know…" he whispered, grinning at her. Kairi was at a loss of what to do. Then Demyx took out a tiny plastic container, with what looked like a weird rubber band inside it.

"What's that?" Kairi asked flatly, and Demyx burst out laughing.

"It's a condom. It's for protection when you have sex, so you don't get pregnant."

Kairi blushed. With just two words Kairi had proved that she was a virgin- and that she didn't know the first thing about love making. Demyx shrugged. "That kind of ruins it." He said to himself, obviously thinking the same thing as she was. He was a good man.

"Wanna do it anyway?" he chanced, looking at her enthusiastically.

So much for being a good man. Kairi turned around and ignored him. Demyx tried asking again, but found that it was no use, and held her close to him.

They both fell asleep for a couple of hours. In her sleep, Kairi felt like something was thudding, and when she woke up groggily, she noticed a silver haired man outside their window. They both looked at each other for a second, and then he signaled for her to roll down the window. Kairi sat motionless, and then she decided to wake Demyx up. Demyx rolled down the window for her, and turned back over, half asleep.

"Hello. May I ask you why you are in our drive way?" the long, silver haired man asked. He was really hot, but he was really weird, too.

"Uh, our car got stuck." Kairi said shakily. The silver haired man looked at her expressionlessly.

"Were you here with any friends, and did you by any chance participate in intercourse anywhere outside the car?"

Kairi gaped at him. "Why the hell would you ask someone that?"

"Because if you did, I will have to fetch you the hose so that you can clean off the area you defiled." He responded flatly.

Kairi stared at him for a minute, and then she thought of something. "Yes, we did." She said brightly, and the man let out a forlorn sigh. "I only suspected that much." He muttered to himself.

"We also did it on your front porch." Kairi added. The closer she got to the house, the bigger chance she'd have of seeing the girl who needed help.

The silver man gasped at her, serenely horrified.

"How dare you insult our humble surroundings like that, how dare you!"

Kairi shrugged, and got out of the car. "Well, are you gonna show me to the hose or not?" she said, rather chipper. The man looked at her suspiciously, but reluctantly led her to the house all the same. Demyx was left in the car, still asleep.

The faint thought that this was not a good idea crossed Kairi's mind, but she waved it off and continued to follow the man up to the front steps. He was careful to keep a good distance away from her, and he held his long silver hair in his left hand so that it wouldn't by any chance whisp backwards and touch her. Kairi rolled her eyes. How childish.

"Here is the porch-" the man said, pointing around him. Kairi slipped past him, and entered the house.

"Excuse me ma'am, but I really do not believe that you should go inside of this humble abode!"

Kairi ignored him, and began to walk up the stairs, as the man continued to try to be polite. "Nice house." She called down to him, and she noticed a shadow looming over her from further up the stairs. Kairi jumped as another silver haired man backed her down the stairs.

"Yazoo, who is this hooligan you let inside the house?"

"I'm not a hooligan!" Kairi protested, trying to appear brave, but backing down the stairs anyway.

"She participated in intercourse on our front porch, Kadaj." Yazoo lamented, and the short silver haired man in front of her wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Who do you think you are, doing something disgusting like that and then coming inside our house?" Kadaj sneered at her, and Kairi tried not to get upset. The last thing she wanted to do was cry like a little girl in front of these strange men. She was already down off the steps, with Yazoo behind her and Kadaj in front of her. She was very afraid.

Kadaj reached out putting his hand under her chin, and Kairi slapped it away. "Don't touch me!" Kairi burst out, and she watched as Kadaj's face contorted with anger.

"Why you little-" he snarled, advancing towards her, but something stopped him.

"-What's going on down here?" a girl with black hair and striking blue eyes barked from the top of the stairs. Kairi looked up at her, and then gasped.

"What's your name?" she blurted out, and the girl looked very taken aback.

"It's Xion." She said slowly, coming down the stairs. Kairi was determined to talk to her.

"Where do you come from?" Kairi asked, and the girl's eyes widened.

"I lived in Hollow Bastion until recently, did Roxas send you over?" she suddenly said, her hands clenching and unclenching into fists.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Kairi lied. She didn't want to act like she knew anything about the girl, just in case the men moved her off somewhere else where no one would be able to find her. She'd seen it in plenty of suspense movies before, and that was always the thing that the characters did wrong. Well, aside from screaming instead of running.

The girl looked utterly crestfallen, and she nodded slowly. Suddenly, there was a loud banging, and Demyx was thrown in front of Kairi.

"Demyx!" she screamed, rushing over to help him up. Another silver haired man walked in the door behind him, huffing and panting. Then, he pointed to Demyx angrily.

"That boy was snooping around the house, and then he attacked me when I was trying to bring the watering can back inside! He said that we'd kidnapped his girlfriend." The man panted, looking angrily at Demyx.

Kadaj laughed. "You have been duped by a stupid man, Loz. You, with the hair that is blond, listen up." Kadaj snapped, and Demyx looked up at him, frowning.

"What do you want, fancy pants?" Demyx snarled, nodding at Kadaj's finely tailored pants.

"My pants may be fancy, but at least I've got a proper pair. You look like you've painted a pair on your legs."

Kairi noticed Yazoo's eyes lingering on Demyx's pants.

"They're called guy jeggings. I wear them so I can rock, _**and**_ be flexible at the same time. Besides, my girlfriend seems to like them on me just fine." He grinned at Kairi, who frowned back at him.

"Ah yes, which leads me to say this, your girlfriend has been taken up to the house so that she can hose down the porch that you two so defiled when you participated in intercourse."

Demyx laughed out loud as Kadaj said this, forgetting where he was. "Kairi and I had _sex_? My _ass_! She'd punch me in the gut if I even tried to feel her up!"

Kairi went cherry red as Demyx continued to laugh, and Loz looked confused. "So you did not defile our porch?" He said slowly, as if trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together for himself. Demyx went over and patted him on the back like they were old pals.

"Dude, we didn't even have the energy to have sex. We were asleep the whole time." Demyx said, going back over to stand beside Kairi. "Oh, I have to say, nice house! Also, we're kind of like tourists around here, and we were wondering if you know of any good food places nearby? I'm starved."

"Get out." Kadaj cut in flatly, and Demyx nodded, turning to leave. Yazoo cleared his throat behind him, and pointed to Demyx's pants.

"These- jeggings for the males, you say. What makes them different than the jeggings of the females?"

Demyx smiled, patting just above his crotch. "It has extra padding around and under the crotch so your junk doesn't hang out everywhere."

Yazoo grimaced as he said this, and Kadaj looked away in disgust. Loz stood awkwardly beside the door as Kairi and Demyx ran out, and back down to their car.

"Hey, Kairi." Demyx said as they ran. "Why did you tell them we had sex?"

Kairi looked away, chuckling. "It's a long story, but I wanted to get inside the house to see if that girl was there."

"Was she?"

"Yeah, she went back up the stairs before you came back down. I knew there was something about that letter."

"What do you mean, Kairi?"

"That girl knows Roxas."

"Did you catch her name?"

"Yeah, she said that it was Xion."

"Bloody hell."

"What's the matter, Demyx?"

"Xion was part of Organization Thirteen. She hung around Roxas and Axel. So that's where she went."

"Axel and Roxas, huh? I'm gonna write the address of the house." Kairi said as Demyx started the car. She noticed that he had succeeded in moving it further down the lane, and out of the mud.

"What are you gonna do now?" Demyx said with a worried expression. Kairi grinned at him.

"Imma make some calls." She said quietly, looking back out the window as the house vanished behind the trees as they drove on.

….

Aerith sat in the kitchen, sipping on iced tea. Everyone was out of the house, though she was expecting Yuffie back in a few moments. She didn't mind though if Yuffie was a tad bit late. She could do with the extra quiet time.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Aerith sighed. There was another knock on the door, this time louder, and Aerith got up from her seat, still sipping on her drink. "I'm coming, I'm coming." She said quietly, as there was another knock. Really, Yuffie could be so impatient sometimes.

"Yuffie, you really should learn to wait for the person to open the door before trying to knock it down," Aerith chuckled, as she opened the door, but then she gasped, and dropped her glass of tea. It smashed in front of her, and she stepped back from the man standing in front of her.

"Aerith." The silver haired man said compassionately. Aerith tried to stay calm, but she couldn't help herself, and her face contorted with rage.

"How dare you come near me again!" she choked, closing the door behind her so that she was standing outside. She did not want him coming inside the house.

"I wanted to see you before I went back to Nibelheim."

"What were you planning on doing to me this time?" Aerith shrieked at him, and he lunged forward, grabbing her by the neck and slamming her against the front door.

"Shut up. I never did anything to you- you just tried to make me feel like I wasn't the victim." He said, grimacing with anger.

"_I _made _you_ feel like _you_ weren't the victim? You _actually_ believed _that I_ was the one hurting _you _all those times?" Aerith whispered, and the silver haired man unknowingly tightened his hold around Aerith's neck, and she gasped for breath.

"Are you going to kill me, Sephiroth? After all those times that you said you would never hurt me again?" She choked, tears coming into her eyes. Sephiroth suddenly fell back, letting her go. Aerith fell over, gasping for air and coughing. Sephiroth looked away from her until she had regained her composure.

"What did I ever do to you that was _all_ my fault?" Sephiroth cried, and Aerith wiped the tears out of her eyes.

"Why do you think that I left you?" she said sadly. Sephiroth looked away, refusing to answer.

"You raped me." Aerith choked. "I thought you loved me and you took advantage of me, that's why I left you." Aerith stopped, and noticed that Sephiroth was snickering.

"You know you liked it!"

"I was screaming for someone to help me!"

"You never tried to call the police."

"You would've killed me."

Sephiroth looked away again, clenching and unclenching his fists. "It is taking everything in me right now, to not hit you."

"Was hitting me not your fault either?"

"It was my childhood, Aerith! I never knew what love felt like! All I knew was hate! I thought that you could make me better!" Sephiroth took Aerith's hands in his, forcing her towards him. "You know my father experimented on me when I was a child! Calling himself a scientist- I was abused and ill-treated my whole child hood! _He_ twisted me into what I am today! It was all _his_ fault!" Sephiroth growled, squeezing Aerith's hands.

Aerith finally understood. For the first time since a little while after their first fight, when they had still been going out so many years ago, Aerith looked Sephiroth straight in the eye without fear. "You are pathetic." She said serenely, trying not to cry for him. Sephiroth slapped her, but she turned around to face him again.

"You needed your father as an excuse for all the hurt you caused everyone else. Because if you had've realized that it was you who was really at fault, you wouldn't have been able to deal with it. You're so insecure and sad that you take out your anger on people who aren't as strong as you on the outside, to make_ yourself_ feel strong on the inside. But physical strength is _not_ the same as the strength that comes from your heart and soul. On the inside you're just an insecure coward." Aerith shouted at him, feeling like her soul was shining. Then she saw the look on Sephiroth's face, and she went completely cold.

His hands curled around hers so tight, that she gasped in pain. Sephiroth leaned in close to her ear. "You don't know the first thing about pain- maybe I _really _should have raped you to put you in your place!" He snarled in her ears, and she heard a crack in both of her wrists. Aerith tried to yell out, but it was as if her voice had flown out of her mouth in fear.

Sephiroth held her hands in one of his, and with the other, he began to slide his fingers up under her skirt, laughing when she whimpered. "Now I know that you're really just a stupid whore. You're right outside your door for the whole neighborhood to see, and all you can do is moan when I touch you. It's _your_ fault that I'm doing this." He added, and Aerith fought to hold back the tears. The pain in her wrists was unbearable.

His hand touched her private parts, and Aerith bit him hard on the shoulder just as he was about to put his fingers inside her. He slapped her on the thigh hard, and told her to be quiet. Aerith closed her eyes, and tried to leave herself. Then she heard Sephiroth grunt, and he suddenly slumped forward on top of her. She gasped, and saw that Yuffie was standing in front of the door, fuming.

"You dirty little piece of shit!" Yuffie roared at the top of her lungs, kicking Sephiroth hard in the stomach as Aerith passed out.

"Go and stick a kitchen knife up your ass, you stupid, ugly-!" She continued, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. Leon rushed past her with a man with black spikey hair and sky blue eyes.

"-Yuffie! Stop kicking him; you've already knocked him unconscious." Leon said shakily, holding Aerith close to him.

"Is there anything that I can do?" The man beside Leon said in a lost way, and Leon shook his head, examining Aerith's wrists.

"They're broken." He choked, setting her down gently as the man gave him a puzzled look. "Her wrists are broken. Call the police, and an ambulance." The man nodded as Leon said this through gritted teeth, running back into the house as Yuffie opened the door for him. Yuffie bent down beside Leon as Aerith began to wake up again. Leon looked as if his face was made of stone, and Yuffie was crying uncontrollably.

"Hi guys. This is kind of embarrassing." Aerith said, trying to smile.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Yuffie sobbed, kissing Aerith on the cheek.

"Tell you what?" Aerith said serenely.

"The calls that you were getting- they were from him weren't they?" Yuffie fought to not let the tears take over her. Aerith didn't respond to this, she just looked away in shame.

"Leon and I were so excited for you. We thought that you were talking to a guy again. If we'd known that he was bothering you, we could've helped you. It was all my fault; I should've listened to Leon." Yuffie choked, and she began to cry again.

Leon shook his head. "It was my fault, I wasn't protecting you enough. I had a bad feeling, but I put it aside because I thought that you would be happy." He almost whispered the last part, barely keeping his composure. "Why didn't you tell us, Aerith?" Leon suddenly burst out.

Aerith looked up at him. "I didn't want to make you all worry. You worry about me enough." She said, and then the man that Leon came with rushed back outside.

Yuffie smiled at Aerith through this bout of sobs, and tried to wipe her eyes, pointing up to the man behind her. "We brought a present for you for the festival in Disney City, tomorrow. You won't be able to go now." The tears began to roll again.

"How's she doing?" the man said quickly, and looked down at Aerith with a concerned expression. Aerith gasped.

"Is that you, Zack Fair?" she said shakily. The man nodded, and Aerith looked at him for a moment, and then looked down at her hands.

"I've been waiting to see you for so long, thinking of the clever things I was going to say to you. And now you see me at a time like this, with nothing to say worthwhile. It's infuriating."

Aerith looked up at him again, and then she finally broke down, sobbing and sobbing. The ambulance came to get her in a few minutes, and the police hauled a barely conscious Sephiroth away from the house.

….

Axel looked at the picture of Xion again, kicking himself for not remembering her on the train. Then again, she didn't remember what he looked like. Maybe that was partially because the hood on his jacket was covering half of his face and all of his hair.

Suddenly, Axel and all of the people around him jerked forward, as the plane they were on hit turbulence. Axel remembered why he hated flying, now. The last time had been their mother's funeral, so that she could be buried in Nibelheim.

"Excuse me." Axel said to the male flight attendant coming past him. The man stopped and leaned in beside him. "Hi, I'm flight attendant Luke, what do you need?" he said in a bubbly voice. It was obvious that he was _very_ gay.

Axel nodded. "Um, what am I supposed to do during the turbulence, well, I mean, should I be worrying?" Axel finished as the plane jerked around again. Luke nodded slowly, and didn't even seem to care about the turbulence. He just shook his head slowly.

"Well, I just try to stay as laidback as possible, you know? They're just air pockets, anyway, nothing too serious."

"Air pockets?" Axel gulped, and the man nodded happily.

"It's where the plane just drops out of the sky a little bit! Like a little apple falling off the table. Plop! Well, I suppose that the only real differences between the analogies would be that a plane is a plane, and an apple is an apple. And that the plane doesn't hit the ground when it hits air pockets."

Axel looked at him in horror. "Thanks be that that doesn't happen!" he croaked, and the flight attendant laughed, sitting down at the side of his seat and crossing his legs.

"Well, just press that button with the picture of the flight attendant overhead if you need me, and I'll pop over and give you assistance." He said, looking Axel up and down with a smile.

Then, the plane jerked the tiniest bit, and Luke threw himself into Axel's lap. Lea found this _very_ entertaining. The flight attendant sat up on Axel, apologizing briskly. He wasn't getting up, though.

"Oh, I am terribly sorry! Those darn air pockets!" He said, and hopped off Axel's lap. Then, he went back to the back of the plane.

As soon as the attendant was gone, Lea jabbed the attendant button above him, and another flight attendant came. But, it wasn't Luke.

"Hi, I'm Fearghal. Now, what is it that you need?" Axel gave Lea a death glare. This one was gay, too. Lea leaned over in front of Axel.

"He's afraid of flying. Our mother used to sing us lullabies on the plane to help us go to sleep, or calm us down when we were scared. Do you think that you could help Axel out?" Lea said, clasping his hands together. Axel mouthed for him to stop, but before he could do anything else, Fearghal was practically on his lap. "What do you want me to sing, love?" he said, patting Axel on the head. Axel shook his head, chuckling nervously.

"I don't really think that-" Axel tried to say, but Fearghal had already thrust Axel's head into his chest.

"You just lay yer wee head on my breast. I don't know any lullabies, but there is this one really nice song that I just love for pleasant little journeys."

Lea nodded enthusiastically, and Fearghal started off.

He cleared his throat, swaying back and forth a little bit.

"_What kind of boy, you liiiiike? Mmmh…_

_I know my looks can be decievin',_

_Tell, me, am I, yo' tyyypppe….._

_My main goal is to please you-"_

Axel cringed as Fearghal went on, and Lea tried to stifle a laugh. Then, Fearghal raised the volume a bit, and broke into the chorus.

'_My kiss is like- woah!_

_My touch is like- woah!_

_My sex is like- woah!_

_My ass is like- woah!' _

Lea broke out laughing as Fearghal continued to rock Axel back and forth. "Is something funny, small lad?" Fearghal said defensively, and Axel broke free of his hold, standing up.

"I'm going to the bathroom." He growled, and he heard Fearghal say "ooh!" behind him. Axel shut the door behind him, and almost fell over when the plane hit turbulence again. The captain came across the line and said that everyone should be seated before they made their descent to Nibelheim.

"Thank god." Axel grumbled to himself, and slipped out of the bathroom and back to his seat. Lea was wiping the tears out of his eyes, and Axel grabbed him by the scarf around his neck. "Who the hell do you think you are, provoking those people like that?" he spat at Lea, who shrugged happily.

"I think I'm the funniest smart ass around." He snapped back, smiling broadly at Axel. "Oh, by the way, I gave him your number."

Axel looked at him in awe for a moment, and then he reached into the front pocket of his seat to find the barf bag. When he found it, he began to breathe in and out of it, trying to forget that he was on a plane.

…

Axel looked at the picture of Xion again, kicking himself for not remembering her on the train. Then again, she didn't remember what he looked like. Maybe that was partially because the hood on his jacket was covering half of his face and all of his hair.

Suddenly, Axel and all of the people around him jerked forward, as the plane they were on hit turbulence. Axel remembered why he hated flying, now. The last time had been their mother's funeral, so that she could be buried in Nibelheim.

"Excuse me." Axel said to the male flight attendant coming past him. The man stopped and leaned in beside him. "Hi, I'm flight attendant Luke, what do you need?" he said in a bubbly voice. It was obvious that he was very gay.

Axel nodded. "Um, what am I supposed to do during the turbulence, well, I mean, should I be worrying?" Axel finished as the plane jerked around again. Luke nodded slowly, and didn't even seem to care about the turbulence. He just shook his head slowly.

"Well, I just try to stay as laidback as possible, you know? They're just air pockets, anyway, nothing too serious."

"Air pockets?" Axel gulped, and the man nodded happily.

"It's where the plane just drops out of the sky a little bit! Like a little apple falling off the table. Plop! Well, I suppose that the only real differences between the analogies would be that a plane is a plane, and an apple is an apple. And that the plane doesn't hit the ground when it hits air pockets."

Axel looked at him in horror. "Thanks be that that doesn't happen!" he croaked, and the flight attendant laughed, sitting down at the side of his seat and crossing his legs.

"Well, just press that button with the picture of the flight attendant overhead if you need me, and I'll pop over and give you assistance." He said, looking Axel up and down with a smile.

Then, the plane jerked the tiniest bit, and Luke threw himself into Axel's lap. Lea found this very entertaining. The flight attendant sat up on Axel, apologizing briskly. He wasn't getting up, though.

"Oh, I am terribly sorry! Those darn air pockets!" He said, and hopped off Axel's lap. Then, he went back to the back of the plane.

Lea broke out laughing, and Axel told him to shut up. Axel hated being up in the air. The plane jerked a little bit more, and Axel searched in the back pocket of the chair in front of him, pulling the barf bag open. When he did, it ripped along the side, and Axel sighed, asking Lea if he could borrow his barf bag. Lea said no, and Axel reached over in front of him and took it anyway. As he was pulling it towards his face, Lea grabbed the bottom of it, and ripped it open.

"What the hell are you playing at, you annoying little-" Axel growled at Lea, but then the captain came on.

"This is your captain Tommy speaking, we are now descending into Nibelheim. Please return to your seat for the final descent."

As the captain said this, Axel sat back and closed his eyes. The plane lurched, and started to descend, and Axel tried to breathe in and out slowly.

As the plane got closer and closer to the ground, Axel started to whimper, and Lea leaned over to him. "You are pathetic." He said with a smile and Axel wanted to strangle him. Suddenly, the plane lurched a little bit, and landed rather rocky, swaying from side to side.

"We now welcome you to Nibelheim." The air hostess said across the speaker, as the plane turned in to the airport. "Please be seated for a few moments, we will tell you when it is safe to leave the aircraft."

"More like death craft." Axel muttered to himself, getting ready to propel himself and Lea out the door of the airplane.

"You may now leave the aircraft." The hostess said happily, moving aside for the passengers to get off. Axel jumped out of his seat, got his carry-on luggage from under the seat in front of him, grabbed Lea, and barreled through everyone in front of him.

"Wait!" Lea whined, and Axel stopped to listen to him.

"I forgot my luggage under the seat." Lea said, and Axel sent him back to get his stuff, holding up a line of people waiting to get off the plane. Lea came back, and they both ran off, Lea's hand clasped tightly in Axel's wrist. When they got out into the airport, Axel almost fell over in happiness, and sat down on the floor. Lea ripped his hand out from Axel's, and stood a distance away with his arms crossed, looking in the opposite direction of his brother, until the man regained his composure, got up, and sauntered over.

"Let's get outta here." Axel grumbled, and Lea was careful to keep a distance in front of him. It was very difficult, because Axel really wanted to get out of the airport, and Lea had to walk two times as fast as that. So he was practically running through the airport, with Axel tagging along.

When they got into baggage claim, they went past the conveyor belts that carried the bags back to their owners, and looked around for their other brother. Axel only_ really_ wanted to see him because he was their mode of transportation away from the airport. They looked around for a while, and then Lea screamed, and ran over towards a man with striking red hair, spiky on top and pulled back into a pony tail at the back. He looked at axel slowly, up and down, and smirked at him.

"Hey little bro." he drawled, and as soon as Axel came over to him, he pulled the younger man into a head lock, giving him a noogie. "It's great to see you again!" he roared, rubbing his knuckles on Axel's head vigorously.

"Stop you idiot!" Axel snarled "the whole airport's looking at us!"

Axel finally broke out of Reno's hold, and backed away a little bit. Reno chuckled. "You're way stronger than when we were younger. I should have seen that coming. But I'll get you next time- and you** will** beg for mercy!" he added, waggling his finger at Axel's nose.

"I can't believe you still joke around like an idiot at times like this. It's funny how you can be so laid back when dad's lying in a coffin!" he spat at his brother, moving off past him. Lea stayed behind beside Reno, patting him on the back affectionately. Axel walked on a little bit, but then turned around again.

"Where's the car?" Axel snarled at Reno, who crossed his arms. Lea copied him.

"I think that for that, you can just walk to my house." Reno said flatly. And Axel put his palm on his forehead, breathing out heavily.

"Don't be like that, Reno. I've got a funeral to go to, too."

"Axel, get that stick out of your ass and start relaxing." Reno raised his voice when he said this, and an old lady a little distance away scowled at them all.

"I spent most of my childhood trying to stay away from you- it isn't exactly relaxing when I have to come and deal with you again." Axel snapped, and then he saw the look on Lea's face.

The kid looked like he was about to cry, and Reno had his hand on Lea's shoulder. Axel looked away from them both, folding his arms.

Axel had grown an extreme dislike for his brother ever since Lea was born. Axel thought that since there was a new kid in town, Reno would stop picking on Axel and move on to Lea, but that wasn't the way it had happened. Reno adored Lea, and began to bully Axel even more. He'd get mad when Axel would go anywhere near Lea, and eventually Lea caught on, too. Over the years, Axel had kind of subconsciously subtracted himself from the family. And now that that realization had been creeping up on him ever since his dad died, he couldn't deal with it. Especially the fact that his parents hardly even knew him when they had died.

Axel tried to smile, but Reno had already walked past him with Lea, and out the doors of the airport. Another flashback crossed Axel's mind.

Reno and Lea running through the sand on the beach, and Axel chasing them. Both of them running into the water, splashing around while Axel waits on the beach. Axel taking a deep breath, and going into the water just a little bit, calling for Reno and Lea to come back, and Reno and Lea continue to go further into the water. Axel sitting down in the water, wanting badly to go out with them, but also deathly afraid. Then, a shadow passes over Axel, and he looks up into a huge wave.

"AXEL!" Reno shouted, and Axel snapped out of it, following them out into the car park. The two of them where always just ahead of him, barely out of his reach.

…..

Xion stepped down the stairs silently. It was the middle of the night, and Sephiroth's father had gone to Midgar to supervise something going on at the company that he worked for. Kadaj and Yazoo had gone to Midgar, also, but just for a while, so Xion did not know when they would be coming back. When she got down the stairs, and to the front door, she checked around to see if anyone was in the living room adjacent to the hallway, and opened the door as quietly as she could.

"Where are you going?" she heard a deep voice behind her say, and a shadow fell over her. It was Loz.

"Uh, I was, um… I was just going for a brief walk, that's all; I was just, um…"

"-You were trying to escape weren't you?" Loz finished for her, and she nodded at him. He looked back at her, and Xion noticed all the pain in his eyes. "I wouldn't blame you." He said sharply, and Xion leaned back against the door in surprise. Loz beckoned for her to sit down across from him, and she did.

"Ask me anything you want. Everyone is gone." Loz said quickly. He was obviously nervous. Xion nodded.

"Are you really Sephiroth's brother?" She asked, and she could sense Loz' discomfort.

"No." he said slowly, as if deciding to elaborate.

"What are you, then?" Xion asked, even though she thought that she knew the answer.

"The three of us are his children." Loz said with tears in his eyes. Xion looked down, sucking in a breath quickly, and nodding for him to go on.

"It was from a previous relationship. She left him and sent him us all. But, maybe I should start with Hojo." He said darkly, and Xion squirmed in her seat.

"Hojo and Lucrecia were both scientists for the Shinra Electric Power Company in Midgar. They had a son and called him Sephiroth. I don't know the specifics, but Lucrecia eventually left Hojo, and he began using Sephiroth in experiments. So, Sephiroth was technically born and 'raised' in Midgar. The experiments that were performed on him had harsh side effects, an example being bouts of intense pain and paranoia. But, he became emotionally unstable after he found out about where he really came from. As soon as he figured out what happened to him, he fled Midgar. Sometime later, Hojo bought this house and moved in here. After that, we were all sent to this house with a letter saying we were Sephiroth's children. We were triplets."

Xion looked up at Loz in horror. "Hojo didn't experiment on you all, did he?" Loz looked at her with a tired eye, and then sighed.

"We think that he did something to Kadaj, but our brother will never tell us what happened. Anyway, we were all children when we came to this house, we weren't just babies. Our mother had died. Sephiroth came back around a month after we had been staying with Hojo to discuss us with him. I think he told Hojo something along the lines of 'if you touch one of my children, I will kill you', so Hojo hasn't gone near us."

Xion clasped her hands, and then began to walk towards the door. Loz followed closely behind her. "Where are you going?" he said in a gruff voice. Xion looked back around at him fiercely. "I'm leaving." She choked, and began to open the door. Loz stopped her, grabbing her shoulders.

"You can't leave us! Please, you're the only one that can save us all. All we ever wanted was to be part of a family that loved us! You can't leave us all to rot in this building!" he said desperately, but Xion shook her head, with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I can't help you, I'm so sorry. I can't help you- and I can't help your father. He needs more love and care than I can give, than any woman or man can give, I'm afraid. I don't know what to do for him, so that means that I am not the right person to help him" she said quickly, putting her hands around Loz' face. He looked down, as if he was fighting with himself on the inside.

"If you won't stay for me, stay for Kadaj. He needs you, too." Loz pleaded, and Xion wiped her eyes.

"I think that the best thing I can do for you all, is find my friends, and we can all meet again. How about that?"

Loz looked around frantically for a moment, and then he sighed, and nodded, opening the door for her. She bowed gently in front of him, and then she turned to go out the door, stopping dead in her tracks. Kadaj and Yazoo stood in the door way in front of her, soaking wet. It was raining pretty heavily outside.

"Trying to run away, princess?" Kadaj cooed at her, but Xion sensed malice behind his words. Yazoo looked at her coldly, with the eyes of a doll.

"Nope, I was just gonna go out for a stroll." Xion tried on them, trying to squeeze out past them. Kadaj stopped her and pushed her back inside the house. "You'll catch a cold." He said flatly, going up the stairs. About halfway up, he turned around, addressing Loz.

"Brother, make sure that she does not leave the house. We don't want her getting sick now, do we?" he sneered at his brother, who looked down at his feet in shame.

Xion turned back to him as Kadaj went back up the stairs.

"What's his problem?" Xion asked nervously, and Loz looked sadly at the fireplace. The flurry of dancing flames reflected in his sorrowful eyes.

"He knows I've been talking to you about things that I shouldn't."

"Why shouldn't you tell me this stuff? I'd have known it eventually, anyway."

Loz looked at her, smiling weakly. "He's sure that you will leave."

Xion did not know if this was just to make her feel guilty or not, but a feeling of sadness was creeping over her.

"Though, I didn't expect him to be this mad about it all." Loz commented, furrowing his eyebrows. Yazoo turned up from the hallway, and went over to stand beside his brother.

"There has been a development in Hollow Bastion." Yazoo said serenely, and Xion's head snapped up to attention. "What's wrong with Sephiroth?" she said slowly, and Yazoo looked her straight in the eye.

"He is being incarcerated in the jail in Hollow Bastion." Yazoo said simply, turning away. Loz grabbed him by the arm, and turned him around.

"It's the company thing, isn't it?" Xion said sadly. She was suddenly angry with the law for locking her future husband away. It wasn't his fault anyway; it was the front man who quit before any of the blame could be placed on him that did it.

As Xion said this, Yazoo chuckled, looking away with a tinge of anger. "If only I could inform you of what the real problem…" he trailed off, becoming very interested in the marble pillars on either side of the front door. Xion went over to him, folding her hand in around his. He whipped his head around, and jerked his hand away, but Xion kept her hold on it. He looked down at her hand, trying to find the right words to say.

"Tell me the truth." Xion said softly.

"Yes, tell her." Kadaj laughed, and Xion looked up at him.

He was standing on the top of the stairs, his hand closed into a fist that was resting on his chest. Hatred clouded his whole face, and he looked almost as if he was going to fall apart.

"Tell her what her dear fiancée, our father, has done." He spat at Yazoo, who seemed to be closing into himself. Loz was expressionless. Kadaj looked around at them, chuckling. "Well, if you won't, I will."

"Your fiancée, miraculously, did not get sent to jail for the company scam that _he _was _very much _participating in, even though he may have told you otherwise. He has been charged with sexual assault against a young woman. According to her, this is not the first time he has tried to rape her, or assault her. He is just infuriating. If he hadn't gone and done this-"

"-I would've been the same as the woman you're talking about." Xion finished for him, and he looked down the stairs at her. Her head was bent, and her voice betrayed no emotion. But, when she looked up at him, her face was stained with tears.

"He would have probably raped me, too. Did he do that to your mother too?" Xion said, looking at all of them. Kadaj bolted down the stairs in rage, grabbing her by the front of her shirt. Loz positioned himself beside Xion immediately, watching Kadaj just in case he tried anything.

"Don't you dare insult our mother! Not when she's lying dead in a graveyard! Why would Sephiroth do that to our mother- he loved her of course!" Kadaj screamed frantically.

"Why did she leave us on the doorstep of this house, then?" Yazoo said suddenly, and Kadaj snickered at him.

"Because she was dead, you idiot!" he spat, and Yazoo's face contorted in anger.

"She wasn't dead! I found the note- she wrote it herself! She said she could not bear to look at the children of a man like our father!" Yazoo shouted at Kadaj, who looked around frantically.

"Tell me this sick f*** is lying, Loz!" Kadaj whispered, but Loz just shrugged.

"Believe what you want, brother. I have accepted this a long time ago. Nobody loved us. Not our mother, not our father, not anyone." Yazoo said coldly, and Kadaj couldn't take it anymore. He collapsed onto the ground, and Xion fell beside him. He pushed her away.

"You two don't know what I have had to go through, you have never known. Someone has to care about me; I can't stand it if there is not anyone. Do either of you care about me?" He said, looking up at them.

"If we had cared about you, we wouldn't have told you what we just did." Yazoo said serenely, and then walked off. Loz paused for a moment, and then followed him.

Xion looked at Kadaj, but she didn't know what was on his mind. It was as if he wasn't inside his body anymore. She patted him on the back to see what would happen, and then she pulled him into a tight hug. Despite everything that he had said and done, he was still warm, she could feel a heartbeat. He was still human.

"You know, at one time in my life, I tried to find my mother. I searched and searched, and I finally found a name." She said slowly, inches away from Kadaj' face.

"But it wasn't her. Turns out that that girl had died when she was 6. I went to her grave in the cemetery, and I put some flowers near her gravestone. But unless I find my real mother, I will never know what it feels like to be unwanted. I am so sorry. I want you to know that _I _care about you."

"Then why are you leaving?"

Xion tried to find the right answer to this, still holding Kadaj close to her. "I'm not leaving you, I'm leaving Sephiroth. And I suggest that you do the same. Break away from the mold that you're in. How about we visit your mother's grave tomorrow?" Xion finished, and Kadaj glanced over at her.

"Why would I want to go to the grave of a woman who couldn't even lay eyes on me?" Kadaj spat.

"To forgive her- and to forgive yourself, too, for hating so much." Xion responded, and kissed him on the cheek.

"I'm gonna go upstairs, it is pretty late in the morning, so I'm just gonna get some shut eye, and we can go to the grave tomorrow, you up for it?" she said brightly, getting up from beside Kadaj, and skipping up the stairs. Kadaj nodded behind her, and then stood up.

"Wait, Xion?" he said suddenly, and Xion turned around to face him.

"Thank you." He said, finally smiling.

And it was genuine.

…..


	7. Chapter 7

**I thought this would just be 7 chapters, but there will be an 8****th****, but it will kind of be an epilogue, I believe. I have kind of tied most of the loose ends together, but everything will be settled in the final chapter (sob sob). It was a fun ride. It took me under two weeks to write this whole thing, and it feels like I've been doing this for years. I will miss writing this story. It was so much fun. But, I've got to save all the sop for the next chapter! Keep reading! **

Axel heard the sound of waves, and slowly felt himself submerged in icy cold. He couldn't feel anything anymore, just the pull of the waves against him, as he drifted through coldness, in and out of consciousness.

He slowly opened his eyes, and the sting of salt water hit them as he realized that he was deep underwater. Everything around him moved in a different time, space, and feeling. The sun shone down on the ocean, but it didn't seem to reach the depth where Axel was. He found a small section of sea bed, and tried to propel himself to the surface, splashing around, trying to convince himself that he'd make it to the sun. He tried to remember what the teacher had been showing them during the only swimming lesson that he had ever gone to. 'Swim like a frog!' she had been teaching them, and Axel remembered that he hadn't been able to get it, so he went off to sulk and hide in the bathroom for the rest of the lesson.

'Swim like a frog' he thought to himself 'that can't be too hard!' Then he moved his legs, closing his eyes and trying to picture the way a frog moved through the water. Then, he opened his eyes a little bit, and felt a twinge of the suns warmth. His heart began to beat faster, as he began to get warmer and warmer. The sun was just above him. Then, just as he felt that he'd made it to the surface, the sun disappeared behind the horizon and the cold creeped back into Axel's bones. He began to cry, trying to tell himself that if he didn't get to the surface, he would suffocate, and be stuck down here forever.

Then, he noticed that he wasn't breathing at all, and his heartbeat was growing weaker and weaker.

'No!' he convinced himself, shaking his head. 'I've still got time.'

With all his might he tried to swim towards the surface, thinking how sweet a breath of air would feel when he broke surface. Then, he felt something tugging on his leg. He hated seaweed; it always felt slimy and cold. He'd have to unhook his foot. Still looking towards the surface, he tried wriggling his foot out of the grasp it was in, but as he continues to try to break free, the hold became tighter. Axel felt nothing for a moment, but then he felt a chill up his spine, and all the horrible feelings that he was trying to hold back were coming up inside him. Against his own intuition, Axel looked back down, and gaped in shock and horror.

It was a dead body- naked and completely absent of hair, staring up at him from the abyss below. Axel tried to scream, and kicked the body with all his might, but it continued to creep up his body, moving its hands up his legs, across his stomach, until it rested one of them on his heart, which was fighting to keep beating. The touch of the bodies hand was completely cold, and Axel felt like his insides were becoming sluggish and tired, and were moving slower than before.

The body looked up from his heart, straight into his eyes, and Axel saw that it was his mother. He reeled back in horror, but the body grabbed the sides of his face, staring into him. Then, the face contorted into a different one. Now it was his father. And then it began to change again…

And it was him, now.

The fear and anxiety that had been welling up inside Axel for so long came screaming up from inside him, and he fought against the body, but he was moving in slow motion, his body had become so sluggish that it wasn't responding to muscle commands properly any more. After a short few seconds, Axel was horrified to find that he could hardly move at all. The body put its hand back on Axel's heart, and he felt it get slower and slower, until it was hardly beating at all. Axel couldn't even see the sky anymore. All he could see was the waves above him, and feel the cold of the ocean pressing down on him.

Then he was angry. Slowly, his heart began to beat louder, and louder, until it was magnified throughout the ocean. The body in front of him began to glow red, and then it was on fire, screaming in agony. It fell away from Axel as he himself began to burn away, screaming his name. Its face contorted again, and this time it was Reno. Axel's name became louder and louder, until-

"AXEL!" Reno shouted, and Axel gasped for breath, waking up from the nightmare he had been having. For a moment, he sat in the small guest bedroom of his brother's luxurious apartment, and it was still dark. Then, he grabbed Reno by the waist, and started to sob, leaning his head on his brothers T shirt. Reno chuckled then he shook his head and hugged his brother back.

"Dude, what is wrong with you?" He said, looking down at his brother, who was still shaking badly. "You haven't been like this since after mom died. What's gotten into you?"

"I had a dream of the wave that carried me off to sea again." Axel choked, not wanting his brother to see his face when he was in a state like this.

Reno's smile faded, and he sighed. "I know it came out of nowhere, but we got you back. And you were alright. You're alright now, just a little beat up over dad, that's all. That's why you're having these weird dreams. Lea had a really bad nightmare tonight, too. He dreamed that dad wasn't really dead when they started to do the autopsy. The doctors were just ignoring dad's screams, and Lea couldn't do anything about it because he was locked out. He's sleeping with me." Reno added, as if a little bit smugly, and Axel let go of him. Reno still was really possessive of Lea. Nothing had changed.

"Well, goodnight big boy, think you can handle this room by yourself, or do you want to come in with us?" Reno mocked lightly, smiling big. Axel frowned back at him, saying it'd be an even worse nightmare to see Reno asleep.

"I don't know how Lea can handle it, myself." Reno shouted as he left Axel's room, then Axel heard the creak of a door down the hall as it opened and closed, and then he was completely alone.

Axel scratched the back of his head for a moment, and then sat back in bed, closing his eyes. At first, he tried to imagine Roxas, but grotesque images from the dream, and the feeling of being submerged underwater kept creeping back into his mind.

He sighed, and got out of bed, seating himself in front of a small desk that was in the guest room. He looked in the drawers, and found that some paper was still in there, and a pen, too. The original plan for the funeral had been for all three brothers to write a eulogy, and then they'd all choose the best one. Reno said that Lea wrote the best, and Lea said Reno wrote the best. Axel had read some of their stuff- and they both wrote the same way. Both of them tried to write funny, inserting corny jokes here and there, but it never quite worked out for them. But, they knew more about Axel's dad than Axel did himself. But, he began to write, anyway.

'_My father was an exceptional man' _Axel started, chuckling to himself. "I don't know how he's exceptional, but I'm sure that he is."

'_Over the years, I have come to know just what a great man he was. This realization came after the day he died, and I remembered things about him that I hadn't wanted to think about for years.'_

Axel paused, looking at the last line. He hadn't meant to write the 'hadn't wanted to think' part. He hadn't even been thinking when he wrote it. Then Axel looked out the window. It had started to rain in Nibelheim. He hoped that everything would be alright for tomorrow. His suit was waiting for him on the other side of the room.

He thought for a moment, and then he began to write what he thought, instead of what he thought would sound good. He didn't care if his brothers or family read it. He just wanted to right everything, everything from the first day of school to this moment. He was awake all night, editing and re-editing. He had to make this right- or near right, at least.

In the morning, Lea found him fast asleep at the desk, and Reno told Lea not to bother him. They both got dressed and ready to greet the guests that were coming in from outside around this time, and chaos started downstairs. Axel slept through it all, until the last breakfast quest was gone, out into their cars to go to the funeral.

Axel finally woke up, and immediately felt that something may not have been right. He ran into Reno and Lea's rooms, and found that neither of them was in there. Panicking, he searched around the house frantically, but found that no one was there. Breakfast plates were laying around the sink and kitchen, which meant that the breakfast service for the family had already ended, and everyone had gone to the funeral. Axel almost screamed, and flew up the stairs to take a quick shower. Then he threw his suit on, brushed his teeth, and ran out the door. He kept running until he got to a neighbor's house, and asked to use their car. The old lady living there said she would comply if he promised to come visit her more often. He still didn't quite get that, and was seriously considering that she may have been blind of senile.

On the way there, he phoned his brother. "Reno! Where the hell are you?" he screamed into the phone, and heard a yelp on the other side.

"I'm at the funeral, where are you? I've been trying to find you now for about ten minutes! The service is starting soon! You're part of the bloody procession!"

"I'm still at the house, you didn't wake me up!"

"I thought the racket downstairs would be enough to get your attention- it wasn't my fault that you were up the whole night!"

"You could've checked on me! Look, I'm in a car, I'm gonna be there in ten minutes."

"Well, I'll re-do things so that one of the family can take your place in the procession." Reno said uncaringly, and Axel got the impression that it was coming to the end of the conversation. "I guess that I'll just do the eulogy, too, it may be too late to pick out of all three. Lea's is pretty good too. Pretty funny, if you ask me."

Axel shook his head, even though he knew that his brother could not see him. "No way- I've got my eulogy and we are going to choose when I get there. You're not going to completely _ruin_ my reputation in the family."

"You should've been around more often." Reno snapped, and then hung up. A little while later, Axel pulled into the church building.

Axel locked up the car, and ran into the church. Reno was near the door, fuming. He grabbed the piece of paper out of Axel's hand and began reading it. At first he laughed, but then his expression began to soften, and he eventually handed the paper back to Axel.

"This is good. We'll do yours." He said quickly, and rushed off back to the pews in the church to sit down. The service started, and Axel sat in beside his two brothers, at the front of the church. He looked around subtly to see if he knew anyone, but he couldn't remember any one in particular. One was sitting in the very back with fuzzy red hair and black eyeliner, with a nasty expression on his face. Maybe he was the violent one the family had been talking about a while back.

Lea tapped Axel on the shoulder, signaling for him that it was his turn to go up to the podium. Slowly, he walked up and behind it, clearing his throat nervously. He felt that the whole world was looking at him, and he wondered if this was actually the right decision. Suddenly though, he felt something warm on his shoulder, he looked around to see if it was the priest, but he was sitting in the back near the altar. So Axel decided to start.

'_My father was an exceptional man' _He croaked, shuffling the little page that he had in front of him.

'_He was the eldest of seven, and he had to look after everyone himself, putting dreams aside so that he could support the dreams for the rest of the family. This caused him to become coarse and bitter over the years, but then he met our mother. She made him glad for all the decisions he had made in his life._

'_It must have been hard raising three rambunctious boys, but we all got on okay. First was Reno. He was great at everything, and he made our dad very proud. Then came me. Then came our brother, Lea, who dad adored. _

_I always felt like me and my dad were distant, like we didn't know each other well. It only got worse over the years, until it got awkward to call, just something that had to be done. Then we didn't call each other at all.' _Axel voiced quivered on the last line, and more than anything he just wanted to leave the podium and run away.

'_I always said to myself, there will be time, I'll do it tomorrow. But when tomorrow comes, and your dad's gone and you never got to tell him how much you really loved him, or even what you really thought, it's a terrible feeling. If he could just hear me right now, I'll tell him exactly what's on my mind._

'_When I was a kid, we used to go to the beach a lot. It was my dad's favorite place, but I hated it, because I couldn't swim, and there had been times where giant waves would sweep in and carry people away. There were always legends about the god of the sea requiring at least one person each year as payment for all the good fish given to the people, but my dad said it wasn't true._

_One day, I was sitting on the beach, and my brothers were pretty far in. My dad was a few feet away from me, watching my brothers. Then, a shadow fell over me, and I looked up to see a huge wave coming over me. Then, I got washed out. At that time, I couldn't even swim, and the current of the ocean was just tossing me around like I weighed nothing. I was so scared that I was going to die, and lie forever under the ocean. But, just as I began to go unconscious, I felt something warm grab a hold of me, and pull me up. _

_All I can remember is my dad holding me very close, and rocking me back and forth. I saw that he was crying. He told me 'no matter who tried to take me away from him, he would never let me go.' It's funny that I just remembered that last night. I think that my dad gave it back to me to remind me how much he loved me. And I hope, wherever he is, he can still be proud of me. I love him very much.'_

Axel finished, and the warmth on his shoulder gave it a squeeze, like it was a hand guiding Axel through the whole speech. Then, Axel thought he could hear a chuckle behind him, and it was gone. The magic of the moment ended, and he breathed out a sigh of relief, realizing that everything was settled now, that everything would be okay. Then he also realized that the whole church was still staring at him.

"Um… yeah." He finished, bowing a little bit. Then he went back to his seat. Reno was staring off into space, but when Axel sat down, he pulled him into a hug. "I saw dad standing behind you." He said, as if that wasn't strange at all. "He was smiling."

"Sure you're not just hallucinating?" Axel said, hugging his brother back. Reno shook his head.

"I'm sorry for everything I did to you when we were younger. I was a selfish brat."

"Were? You still are, Reno." Axel said, laughing a little bit, and Reno laughed too, then he turned around. Lea had gone up to the stage to do his piece.

"We decided that we'd all just do a little piece together, so it'd all fit into one." Reno said softly as Lea started off with a cheesy joke. Everyone in the audience laughed because they thought that he was cute. Then, it was Reno's turn. He stood up proudly, and sauntered up to the podium.

"Dad." He whispered mysteriously. Then he loosened up. "I'm just kiddin' with you guys. I'm gonna lighten the mood with a personal favorite of mine that I think sums up this whole little get together."

Axel put his head in his hands, trying not to laugh again.

"Why did the chicken cross the road?" Reno bellowed across the church, waking a few sleepers up. Everyone just kind of looked at him, and then looked around to see if he actually was being serious. Then they looked around to see if anyone was going to answer him, or if he was gonna answer it himself.

"-To get to the other side" Reno finished, and the audience sat back and relaxed again.

"Now, I don't think this joke just has to mean a chicken and a road. I'm talking about a man and life. A guy goes through life to get to the other side of it. It may be a rocky road, or a smooth one, or a malnourished one." There were a few raised eyebrows when Reno said this. A malnourished road?

"But, we all have to deal with it, and sometimes we can be chickens. But we have to cross that road to get to the other side. Which no doubt has some awesome bird feed and maybe a few hens here or there." There was a painful silence after this and a few odd chuckles from across the church.

"And you know I bet Dad's with his mamma hen right now. Our mamma hen. And we're the chicks. Not ready to cross that road yet to get to the other side." Reno wiped a tear from his eye at this point. Axel had to give it to his brother, he sure was confident.

Axel looked up and smiled at his brother, who seemed to go on and on.

'Somewhere' he thought to himself 'somewhere dad's laughing like crazy.'

…..

Xion got out of the car that Kadaj had been driving, and Yazoo and Loz stepped out behind her. There was a funeral going on up at the graveyard, and they were careful not to interrupt it.

It took about ten minutes to find the grave, and they were dismayed to find out that it was just a little distance from the funeral. But, ten minutes later, it was over, and everyone was clearing out. Suddenly, Xion chuckled.

"Wow. All that red hair looks like fire when it's together. It reminds me of…" Xion's jaw dropped when the crowd cleared, and all that was left was a man with spikey red hair, and odd teardrop shaped tattoos on his cheeks.

"Axel?" she screamed, and his head whipped up. He gasped, and ran over to her, embracing her.

"I can't believe this!" he whispered, laughing all the while. Xion started to cry in his arms, and only hugged him tighter.

"I thought I'd never find you!" Axel said, and swung her around. Loz, Kadaj, and Yazoo started to walk over to Axel warily, not sure what to make of him. Then, there was a cry out of nowhere, and Kairi ran in front of Xion before the other three could get to her.

Yazoo pointed to Kairi in awe. "It's the strange nymph that lied about defiling our porch!" he said in surprise, and everyone looked at Kairi.

She shuffled her feet, and shrugged. "Well, you know…." She mumbled, trailing off into nothing, Demyx came up behind her and put his arm around her shoulder.

Xion gaped again. "Demyx? You're going out with… with Kairi?" she finished slowly, suspiciously eyeing Demyx, and then Kairi.

Axel put a hand in the air before Demyx tried to defend himself. "Let's stop talking about this in a graveyard. Come outside and we can all talk together." Everyone nodded, and went out of the graveyard, across the road, and into the car park where the family was getting ready to go back to Reno's house.

The whole way, Kairi and Demyx played body guards to Xion, not letting the silver haired men near her. Loz was starting to get upset when she jumped in front of them and shouted "ah- ha!"

"You all thought that you could keep this poor girl locked away, but I've got the police here with me, and you three are going to jail!" She cackled, rubbing her fingers together, and Xion shook her head.

"JAIL? These guys didn't do a thing. None of them are going to jail. But Hojo on the other hand, he could spend a little time behind bars…"

Loz stomped his foot on the ground. "Are you trying to rip apart our family?" he croaked.

"We don't have a real family. Hojo works for Shinra Electric. He's in Midgar right now, but you might want to search the house, and then his lab. I'll talk with the authorities." Kadaj finally mumbled, shuffling off with a talkative Demyx towards two cop cars parked a respectful distance away from the church.

"I don't understand." Kairi said slowly. "I thought that those guys had trapped you. Don't you want to get away from them?"

Xion smiled at her. "They weren't the ones that I needed to get away from. I'm fine now, thank you for caring, though."

Axel smiled broadly at Xion, remembering his promise to Roxas. He couldn't wait to see the look on Roxas' face when he showed Xion to him. "Roxas had given up hope of ever finding you- I can't believe that you just turned up right at the time that I was here!"

Xion nodded. "Yeah-"

"What's going on, Axel?"

Everyone turned around, and saw Reno standing a few inches away, a little bit confused. "Who are all these people?"

Axel put his arms around as many people as he could, and smiled. "These are all my friends. Can they come to the house for dinner?" Axel said brightly, and Reno nodded, eyeing Kairi up and down.

"Hey, why don't you come in my car, and the rest of you can go with Axel." He said, leading Kairi to his car with a confident smile.

Demyx quickly scootched his way in front of Reno and made a point of grabbing Kairi by the waist. "She's already present and accounted for." He said dramatically, trying to stare Reno down. Kairi pushed away from both of them, and put her hand around Xion's waist.

"I sure am. C'mon Xion, let's get away from these stupid boys. We need to be friends." Reno and Demyx looked at one another, and then relaxed. Reno pointed to Demyx' pants.

"Hey, are those jeggings?" he asked, and Demyx nodded.

"Yeah, I wear them so I can _rock_ **and **be flexible at the same time." Demyx said, striking a rocker pose. Reno nodded enthusiastically. "Wait, how are those jeggings different than girl jeggings?" Reno piped up as Demyx began to turn around.

"Extra padding around an under the crotch so your junk doesn't hang out." He responded, and Reno laughed, putting his arms around Demyx' shoulder.

"I shouldn't have even had to ask." Reno drawled, and then he and Demyx began to discuss music and where they bought their clothes. Kadaj was still a bit shaken by everything that had gone on, and Loz went and patted him on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't as good a brother to you as I should have been." Loz mumbled, and hugged Kadaj suddenly. Then Kadaj nodded, and they went off, too.

Axel was left alone with Yazoo, and he shuffled his feet, trying to find the right words to say. Axel couldn't lie, the guy was pretty weird, but he was pretty hot, too.

Axel put on his best charmer front, and addressed Yazoo. "So… everyone else is walking in pairs, so I guess that we should, y'know…"

Yazoo looked at him coldly, and began to walk off, leaving Axel alone outside the church. He looked back at the building and behind it towards the graveyard. He yelled to the others that he would be over in a while, and ran back into the grave yard again.

"Bye mom and dad. I promise I'll take care of Lea, even if he doesn't want me to. I love you guys." He whispered, and then he bowed deeply before the grave.

He would be going back to Destiny Islands tomorrow, after the reading of the will. Lea would stay with him until they got the house situation sorted out, and he would probably have to take care of Xion, too, now that she was on her own. He scratched his head, a little bit worried.

"I need money." He said to himself, not even bothering to estimate the cost of three people in one dingy apartment.

….

Namine looked on in horror as the house she had lived in before had a 'for sale' sign put in front of it. The boy who had always had the camera on him- the one who always hung around the house trying to get a picture of her- had gotten a photo of her bringing in groceries.

Then, the idiot had taken the picture to the city officials, and they'd come to the conclusion that the ghost was really just a 'rambunctious young girl.' Worst of all, the kid had taken all of her stuff. She never had the chance to get it back from him.

A man in a gray suit and sunglasses sauntered over to her, with Marluxia behind him, and Namine reeled back in terror. She had had to run from him so many times, and no matter what he always seemed to catch her. The suited man seemed very pleased with himself. "Well, we've found your guardian angel, Ms. Namine! It turns out he lived in Destiny Islands the whole time- just a short drive away from you! We just need to go to Disney Town tomorrow to get the adoption papers signed officially."

"What time do we come?" Marluxia said politely, showing no signs of anger or ill will.

The man took out a small packet of papers in his hands, filed through it, and brought out a green piece of paper. "6 o'clock in the afternoon should be fine; the official ceremony will start at 7, though. You've got to be early."

While Marluxia and the suited man talked, Namine noticed that the camera boy had come back, and was signaling for her to come over. She trailed off towards him, and sat down beside him near some bushes. Marluxia was eyeing her suspiciously.

"What do you want?" Namine snarled at him. He'd more or less ruined her life.

"My name is Pence, and I'm sorry that this all happened. I thought I was doing the town a favor. I'm so sorry. By the way, I still have your stuff, I thought that you might like it back today…" he trailed off, noticed that Namine's eyes were looking as if they might pop out of their sockets.

"Please talk instead of shouting." She said dangerously, and Pence stayed quiet. "If that man over there hears what you are saying- it's all over."

Pence nodded, fueled by the potential adventure he was about to be thrown into.

"I need you to meet me in Disney City at 5:30, okay? You have to be there. Right outside Disney Castle- I want to see the King. And bring my stuff. And you know what? Bring Roxas with you, too. My name is Namine." She finished, and walked slowly back over to Marluxia, who was just finished talking with the suited man.

"Did you make a new friend, Namine?" Marluxia said pleasantly, and Namine nodded, smiling warmly. If she did get stuck with Marluxia, she didn't want him to remember everything he'd said to her before.

Marluxia smiled down at her, and they went towards the train station.

"You will have a shower when you get back to my house. I got you a new dress." He added, as they pulled into Destiny Islands.

"Okay." Namine said brightly, and Marluxia smiled down at her, patting her on the head. Namine felt so relieved. Maybe Marluxia had forgiven her for what she'd done.

He opened the door to his apartment, and led her inside. "Go take your shower now." He said, and she ran upstairs, and into the bathroom.

He had been truthful when he said he'd gotten her a new dress. It was very pretty, and Namine admired the white silk and lace on it.

"Try it on." Marluxia said shortly, and Namine went towards the door so that she could change.

"No. In here." He said, taking a drink of water that he had brought into the room, and sat down. Namine fidgeted uncomfortably in the towel that she had wrapped around her. She'd already blow dried her hair (a luxury that had been kept from her for a long time now) and dried off, but she quivered with the cold she was feeling inside of her body. "I can't change in front of you." She uttered, and Marluxia smiled at her.

"Yes you can. I bet that you're not as modest as you make yourself out to be."

Namine tried not to cry, and stood motionless. Marluxia played with the drink in his hand, smiling serenely up at her. "Trust me Namine; this is the least of your worries, now."

She nodded, and took the towel off, shielding herself with the dress. Then, she kneeled down, and tried to put it over her head while covering the rest of her body up. She heard a sigh, and Marluxia got up and went towards her. He stood her up, tracing his hand up her sides and under her arms. Then he pulled the dress down over her chest, waist, and finally down around her legs. Then he sat back down with a smile, and took a drink of water.

"Well, turn around, Namine. Give us a twirl." He said playfully, and Namine gulped, turning around slowly. She knew that Marluxia was looking at her legs.

"You have a beautiful body, Namine. Pity that you hid it for so long."

Namine mumbled a thank you, and went for the door.

"Come here Namine." Marluxia commanded, patting his lap. Namine sighed, and sat down on it. Marluxia put his hands around her waist, and leaned in by her ear.

"Why do you hate me so much, Namine?"

"I'm scared of you."

"Why?"

"Because of what you're going to do to me" Namine said miserably. She knew that Marluxia had been planning this encounter out for a long time- he hadn't forgotten anything.

"Well, that's your fault, Namine. You're the one who made the choice. That's life." He whispered, kissing her ear. Then he smiled, and put her down.

"There is only one bed in my house, so I'm afraid that you're going to have to sleep with me. I don't have a nightdress for you, so you can sleep naked. I'll keep you warm." He added at the end, winking. Then, he shut the door behind him, and left Namine alone.

She fell to her knees and started to sob. Then she stood up and kicked the door. "You'll get out." She said to herself. "You have to promise me that you'll get out."

She went down to dinner in her new dress, and Marluxia talked amicably to her. But she couldn't stomach any of the food she put into her, and threw up all of her dinner after she was finished. Then she crawled into bed, trying hard to fall asleep before Marluxia got in with her. He pulled her close to him, and she could feel his chest was bare.

"You're punishments start tomorrow when we get home from the meeting in Disney City tomorrow." Marluxia sighed, nuzzling his head into the crook of her neck.

'Not after what I have planned tomorrow.' She thought to herself, and fell into a troubled sleep.

….

Pence stood awkwardly inside Disney Castle, waiting in line to see the King. There was a long line for 'business meetings'. He'd had to fight with the desk lady to get an appointment, and had been waiting the whole day. The clock chimed 5:30, and he didn't see Namine anywhere in sight. Roxas had gone off to the souvenir shop, and still hadn't come back.

Then, suddenly, he was there out of nowhere, running towards pence with a weird hat on his head.

"Roxas?" Pence said suspiciously, noticing that his walk had totally changed, and he kept his head bent down. Then, Pence gasped as the person looked up at him. It was Namine dressed as Roxas!

"Where's Roxas?" Pence asked.

"He's out in the town square walking around with my dress on him." Namine said quickly, looked around cautiously every few seconds. She was making her voice sound deeper.

"Roxas in a dress. Who'd ah thunk it?" He said in awe. Then, he and Namine began to wait in line. When it was their turn to go in, Namine kissed Pence on the cheek.

"Thank you so much for helping me. You don't know how much this all means to me." Then, Namine went in to see the king, and Pence was left reeling outside.

Namine stepped into the room nervously with her plastic bag in hand, shuffling her feet. King Mickey sat inches away from her, looking over papers. When he looked up at her, he smiled.

"I know you- you're the girl that was always with Ansem! How is he?" King Mickey asked enthusiastically.

"He's dead." Namine said flatly, and Mickey sat back, rather embarrassed.

"Oh, I'm sorry your Majesty, I didn't mean to embarrass you!" Namine said quickly, bowing deeply, but the King waved for her to stop and sit down in front of his desk.

"It was rightly so that I should be embarrassed. Now, what business deal are you proposing to me?"

Namine reached inside her plastic bag, taking out the pro-erode and anti-erode, and the packet of information on them, setting it all in front of King Mickey.

"Please read it, it's a new dual invention. All the information you need is in the packet, and I have a load of samples. I can assure you that these inventions will revolu-"

"-How much do you want for it?" King Mickey interrupted, setting the packet down. Namine was gobstruck.

"2 million munny." She said brightly, wondering if that was enough. The King looked at her like she was crazy.

"Are you nuts? This is a new invention and you only want that much for it?"

Namine shrugged. She obviously didn't know much.

"Re-decide what you want, and then come back to me."

It didn't take Namine long to decide.

"If you want to partner up with me in this- I want a down payment of 40,000,000 munny, and 45% of sales."

The king was less happy with this idea, but Namine shrugged and said that she wouldn't take any less.

"Okay." He said finally, pulling out a checkbook. "Do you want this in a bank account in your name, or a straight check?"

Namine smiled brightly. "Put it in the bank."

…..

Marluxia stormed through the streets, looking around for Namine. He'd let her go get an ice cream and she'd disappeared all of a sudden.

Then, he saw a flash of white run past him. It was her. He ran at breakneck speed towards her, and tackled her to the ground. She was wearing a big white hat on her head, for some reason.

"Take that stupid thing off!" He said, hoisting her up.

But it wasn't her.

"Uh…Hey, Marley, what's up?" Roxas said uncomfortably, trying to pull the white lacy dress on him further down his legs. "This thing is so bloody short." He mumbled to himself.

Marluxia grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him in to Disney Castle.

He got into the lobby just as Namine came out from the kings office. Marluxia dropped Roxas and went over to Namine. "Come on. It's almost 7 o'clock." He growled, pulling her arm.

"Everything in that bag goes in the fireplace when we get home." Marluxia snarled at Namine, who did not respond. They went into the court room where their meeting was supposed to be, and the judge looked at them angrily. Namine sat down beside Marluxia calmly, not even looking at him.

"This is a meeting to ensure the fact that this young girl does not have the funds to look after herself, and is being put under the responsibility of her potential guardian, am I correct?" the judge growled as the clock chimed 7. Marluxia and the suited man nodded.

"Does this girl have sufficient funds to provide for herself?" the judge drawled.

"Yes." Namine piped up, and brought her bank statement up to the judge to see. He looked down at it, and gasped. "How did you get this much money in so little time?" he said suspiciously, and Namine smiled.

"Ask King Mickey, I just had a very successful business meeting with him." Namine held out a letter of the Kings approval of her product and the contract they'd both signed. The judge chuckled.

"Well, I want to have dinner, and this girl is set for life. Goodnight everyone." He said sleepily, and went out of the room. The suited man snickered, and was just about to leave when Namine stopped him.

"About that house, has it been sold yet?" Namine said. The man assumed she meant the mansion, and shook his head.

"It's only been two days, it's pretty beat up, anyway. Why?"

"I'd like to put a down payment on it right now." Namine beamed, and the man was suddenly her best friend.

"This is the quickest sale I've ever made!" he practically squealed, skipping off with the papers Namine had signed. Namine hugged herself, and noticed Marluxia standing a little bit behind her, in utter shock.

"Just like that?" he croaked.

Namine blew him a kiss, and went towards the door. "Just like that."


	8. Chapter 8

**I am not going to do another recap- if you can't remember what happened you can always read it again. Thank you so much if you've read through all 7 of the previous chapters- and I thank you from the bottom of my heart if you read this one too. Please check out the sequel to this awesome fanfic (It's called Kingdom Hearts Alternate: The Sequel, original, I know)! It picks up two years after the end of this story. I know you all are just dying to know what happens next, so please, read on. **

Axel sat in the waiting room of the hotel, as the rest of the wedding guests filed in. The wedding ceremony was being held in another room, and it would end in probably about 5 minutes. Suddenly, there was a bit of a commotion, and Susan came out of the shrine room of the hotel, beaming with pride. She wore a stunning red kimono (her and Xigbar were 'traditional' as he put it) and Xigbar sauntered out in traditional attire with her, waving to all his quests. He went over to Axel, Roxas, and Xion, hugging each one of them.

"I knew you liked me after all, Ziggy." Axel chuckled, patting Xigbar on the back. The man sighed, shrugging mildly.

"As _if_- you're just good for the after party. If we'd done a western style wedding- you'd_ still_ only be invited to the reception." Then he laughed at Axel, and patted _him_ on the back.

"Xion, you look beautiful- Roxas, stunning." Xigbar said, nodding at both of their clothing choices. Then he went off to greet and meet the other guests.

Xion wandered off to get a drink of water, and Roxas pulled Axel aside to talk with him.

"Uh, so, Axel, when do you want to do the, um…?" Roxas blushed madly, and scratched the back of his neck. Axel looked down at him, and led him off to a separate, empty room.

"Now" Axel said shortly, leading Roxas into the middle of the room. Roxas pulled back a little bit, but Axel held him close. "You promised." Axel said, stroking Roxas' hair.

Then, he pulled Roxas' head back, and kissed him, sliding his hand up under Roxas' shirt, and playing with his nipple. Roxas began to breathe harder, provoking Axel even more. "I-I…." he stuttered, as Axel ran his lips up and down the nape of Roxas' neck.

"Just don't say anything." Axel said softly, unbuttoning Roxas' shirt.

Then they were on the floor, Roxas with his eyes closed tightly, and Axel watching his discomfort. He moved to take Roxas' pants off, and Roxas pushed his hands back.

"Wait! Do we have to go this far?" Roxas snapped nervously, and Axel leaned down over him, licking underneath his jaw. "You weren't this uncertain when you promised we would." Axel said cuttingly, and Roxas kept quiet.

Axel took off Roxas' pants, and the boy lied naked before him. He was so cute when he was this nervous. His cheeks were rosy and he was panting slightly. Axel went down on Roxas, and the boy whimpered, grabbing hold of Axel's hair with his hand. Axel worked his tongue in between Roxas' thighs, which quivered slightly. Then, as he bit the tip of Roxas' member gently, Roxas moaned slightly, trying to stifle his ragged breathing. Axel moved back up, kissing Roxas' cheek, and playing with Roxas' member, rubbing his fingers up and down it. Then, he moved his fingers behind Roxas, and inserted one of them inside him. Axel felt the muscles around his finger tense up, and Roxas covered his face with his hands.

Axel looked up at him as he moved two fingers inside of him. Then he stopped, and took them out, wiping them off on some tissues he had in his pocket. Roxas looked up at him with tears in his eyes.

"What's the matter? You're not finished yet, are you? Are we gonna get this over with or are you gonna just keep stalling?" Roxas said gruffly, looking up at Axel.

"I thought that having sex with you would be great, but it just makes me want to hate myself, and you." Axel whispered.

"What are you talking about?" Roxas snapped.

"You will never love me the way I love you. You said it yourself- 'let's just get this over with'. Like I'm a hardship that you have to get past to be with the one you love."

Roxas chuckled angrily, shaking his head. "Don't make me sound like a prostitute, Axel. I'm doing this because I made a promise to you that if you found Xion, I'd have sex with you, and I'm keeping my promise." He finished, lying back down.

"But I can't 'love' something when I just don't. I can try to pretend, but that will just embarrass me and make me never want to see you again. Do you really want that?" Roxas said, looking up at Axel seriously. Axel laughed, and turned around to Roxas, smiling sadly.

"Go out to your girlfriend, Roxas. Have some fun. Consider the promise kept, this was good enough for me."

Roxas looked at him for a moment, then nodded, put his clothes on, and left, leaving Axel alone in the room. After a few moments, Axel couldn't stand being in there himself, and went to the bathroom to wash his hands and face. He met Xigbar in there.

"What's the matter, Axel?" Xigbar said knowingly.

"Roxas doesn't like me." Axel said flatly. "I mean I love him, but he doesn't love me back."

Xigbar chuckled. "You mean he doesn't love you the same way that you love him. Completely different." Xigbar said, waving his hand around. Axel gaped at him.

"You're not surprised or grossed out?" Axel asked.

"As _if_- you had gay vibes written all over your face."

Axel frowned at this, and reassured Xigbar that he liked women too. Xigbar chuckled.

"Think of this as a true first love. There will be more. Don't dwell on something that isn't gonna happen."

Axel nodded, and left the bathroom, going into the reception room, which was all set up for dinner. Axel brightened up, and decided to give Roxas a little bit of space, and sat down beside Xion.

She immediately gave Axel a hug. "Here's my guardian angel, Roxas. It would've been nice if you had come save me, since you're the one that wants me so bad." She teased, smirking at Roxas. He blushed, and Axel saw that he was holding her hand under the table.

"Axel just came out of nowhere- to save me. Tell me the reason that you came. Was it to surprise Roxas, by bringing me back?" she said brightly, laughing. Roxas looked straight at Axel, who put his head down.

"Oh, they're starting the toasts." Xion piped up, and turned her attention to Xigbar and Susan, who were at the head of the room. At the end of the toasts, the couple kissed each other, and the whole room gave a round of applause. Axel roared his approval, and Xigbar frowned at him.

Then, after all the food was eaten, there was dancing. The bride came out in a new dress, and the first dance between husband and wife started. Axel was surprised. Susan looked really beautiful when she was dancing with Xigbar, so happy. Xigbar looked alright, too.

After that, the party really began. Axel felt like he had to tell Xion why he'd really gone to find her.

"Xion, can I tell you something?"

"Yeah, Axel, sure."

Axel led her outside the party room.

"You know how I found you, and 'saved' you, as you put it?"

"Yes."

"I did it because Roxas said that if I brought you back, he'd have sex with me." Axel said quickly, and Xion looked at him with suspicion, then she kind of smiled.

"I'm sorry to say that I believe you. You know that day when we met in the train? You didn't recognize me at all, even with my hair down. I was kicking myself a few days after for not recognizing the tattoos you always had on your cheeks. But the minute Roxas saw me again, he ran over and kissed me and started to cry. And the way you look at him…I'm not jealous that you care about him more than you do me, because I am forever indebted to you for paying for me to go back with you guys, and transporting me away from the situation I was in. _This_ is the least of what I've had to deal with in my life. So don't worry." She added, hugging Axel. "Maybe we can both get to know each other better, after all this hectic mess starts to fade away."

Then, they both went back into the party room, and the dancing began. As a special wedding surprise, Demyx and his band performed, and Kairi sang over half of the songs that they did. Susan even sang a few songs, and she was pretty damn good.

**EPILOGUE**

Aerith set up everything in the backyard for the garden party as Leon welcomed guests. Zack was out getting a cake because Yuffie had butchered the one that was supposed to be 'home made'. Almost all the guests were in the yard, and there was a knock on the door.

Leon said he'd get it, and opened the front door, and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull. He whistled slightly before he could stop himself, and mumbled a brisk apology after he had done so.

In front of him stood Namine, decked out in a beautiful short skirted, sleeveless baby doll dress. It was made of a fine pearl white silk, with a fine layer of incredibly light, iridescent, gauzy material above it. It was boat necked, and the fabric that went from one shoulder to the other glided perfectly just above Namine's collar bone. Her hair was tied up in a bun, with a small bird of paradise flower, and she wore a soft pink lipstick. "Hello!" she said confidently, smiling at Leon.

"Hi." He squeaked, moving out of her way so that she could go inside the house. Aerith peeked out of the kitchen, and gaped as Namine walked by. She had never seen the girl so beautiful and happy. Xion walked in behind her, in a similar style dress, except it was an extremely dark blue, and she had a deep salmon red colored flower in her hair. They were both the picture of beauty.

"Namine- what's been the change?" Aerith piped up, and Namine smiled broadly.

"I'm filthy rich now!" she exclaimed, giggling slightly. "But don't tell anyone that. I'd rather that people just knew that I was doing _alright_."

"Is Xion staying with you, now?" Aerith asked curiously, and Namine laughed.

"I think that there's enough money for the two of us to share."

Aerith smiled, and nodded gently. Then she felt a pair of hands fall over her eyes, and she giggled. "Who's that?" she said playfully.

"Guess." The voice behind her said, and she frowned. It wasn't Zack. She turned around, and saw that it was Axel.

"Oh." She said in a disappointed voice, and Axel raised an eyebrow. "What's the matter? I thought we had a thing going here."

Aerith shrugged, and then Zack came up behind her, and kissed her on the back of the neck. "Hey darling." He said brightly, and Axel chuckled angrily.

"Oh, I just wanted to ask- chocolate cake is okay, right?"

"I'm sure it's okay for you." Aerith said cryptically, and Zack shook his head, walking off with the cake.

"Lucky in love, eh? I'll take an order of_ that_ please." Axel huffed, folding his arms over his chest. "I saw that both of your wrists are bandaged up. What happened?"

"My old boyfriend that I was telling you about before came back to get me. He won't be coming back for a _long _time now, though." She finished, sighing in a relieved way.

Axel nodded over at Zack. "Who's that?"

Aerith smiled. "Remember the guy I was telling you about? How there was one guy I hoped would never find me, and one that I hoped I'd find again?"

Axel nodded. "He's the latter, I'm guessing?"

"Yes, he's asked me to marry him. I'm going to tell everyone at dinner tonight!" Aerith whispered excitedly, and then Cid came and told her that everyone was outside.

The dinner was served, and everyone sat down at the huge table that had been set out in the yard, and Aerith stood up to make a small speech. She cleared her throat, and everyone looked around to hear what she was about to say.

"The last time we all tried to get together, there was a terrible storm. But, I think that storm washed in something new. We have all met new friends" She looked over at Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz, the latter whom stole an occasional peep at Yuffie, who smiled mischeviously back. They were both blushing.

"And we have also met old ones." She smiled at Zack and at Xion, who was holding Roxas' hand.

"And most of all, we've dealt with problems, and we have come out on top!" Lea crossed his arms as she said this, smiling at Namine. She smiled back at him, and Axel laughed at them both.

"Thank you all so much for joining me to celebrate every great thing that has happened in this short time! And, also…" Aerith began to blush madly, and Zack beamed at her.

"Please celebrate the engagement of Zack Fair and me!" She said giddily, and the whole table roared in approval. Yuffie ran over and almost tackled Zack, crying like crazy, and Cid and Leon hugged Aerith. Everyone went over to offer congratulations, when Kairi stood up on the table.

"And please celebrate me and my boyfriend's band getting a big ass record deal!" she screamed, and the whole table roared again, and started to hug her and Demyx. Yazoo shook his head behind the crowd, whispering to Loz that 'it would never last'.

Then Riku suddenly cleared his throat. "Hey everyone, I have a confession to make."

Everyone looked at him a little bit uncomfortably. He had always been kind of distant.

He stood a little uncomfortably for a moment, and then he sighed. "I'm gay!" Then all the girls tackled him, kissing him and telling him 'congratulations.'

Yazoo shook his head, and Axel chuckled. "If I'd known that a guy could get this much action just by saying he was gay, I would've 'confessed' a long time ago!"

Yazoo wrinkled his nose in disgust. "You are a sick young man." He sighed, inching away from Axel a little bit. Axel just burst out laughing, and it was apparent that Yazoo didn't find it as funny as Axel did.

In a sudden burst of happiness and congratulatory energy, Yuffie went over and kissed Loz, who to everyone's surprise took her in his arms, and passionately kissed her back. The whole table cheered again, and Yuffie dizzily accepted various 'congrats' from everyone.

Then, music was put on, and everyone started to dance.

Axel sat back watching everyone, with a tinge of sadness. It seemed like everyone at this little party would be leaving with a new lover. He chuckled as Riku accepted an offer to go to a sleep over. Who'd ah thunk it?

Then, he spied Kadaj, sitting off on his own, watching everyone with melancholy. Axel pulled his chair up near the guy.

"It's hard seeing a lot of happy people when you just can't bring yourself to join in the fun, am I right?" Axel sighed. Kadaj nodded. "That Namine girl is very…_ satisfying_ of the male hunger, don't you think?" He said bleakly, grimacing when she began to dance with Leon.

Axel looked at him incredulously, and then shrugged. "Yeah, I guess she's pretty hot. But she never satisfies any guy's hunger, if you know what I mean."

"It is the 'hard to get' game, is it not?" Kadaj said sadly, and Axel chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess it is."

Kadaj nodded, looking down at his hands. Then, he clapped them together, and suddenly leapt up, asking for Namine's hand in the next dance.

Axel sat back angrily. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Selphie inching towards him. When he looked at her, she pretended to be dancing alone to the music.

For a minute, Axel just wanted to sit back and sulk, but she just kept looking at him. He shrugged. "Everyday's a party." He chuckled to himself, and asked her to dance. She enthusiastically complied, and Axel pulled her into the middle of the yard where everyone else was having fun.

Axel danced around with Selphie, and then Kairi, Xion, Yuffie, Namine, and Olette. He even danced with Riku, who he decided he'd definitely be getting to know sometime later on. Lea was staying the night with his friend Isa, who had also come to the party, and they both left discussing which video games they would play that night.

As the guests all began to say their goodbyes, Axel spied Selphie going out of the house alone. She smiled sweetly at him, fluttering her eyelashes a mile a minute.

"Hi." She said, looking Axel up and down flirtingly.

"Hi. You wanna have a sleep over with me tonight?" Axel whispered in her ear, and she giggled.

"Sure, honey." She gushed, and Axel kissed her on the cheek, putting his arm around her waist. Then, they both made their way to the train.

Axel had been told that the right person for him would eventually come along one day.

But, who was to say he couldn't mess around with all the wrong ones in the mean time?

The End

**Thanks for reading! Please check out my other fanfics, (there will be more) and I hope you loved this story! :D **


	9. True Epilogue: A Year and a Half Later

**A year and a half later**

Hojo's footsteps echoed as he hurried down a basement hallway of Shinra Electric. His breathing was ragged. Under his arm he held a small folder filled with data on the Bureau of Investigation, and a flashlight. Towards the end of the hall was an old room marked for experimentation, in disuse and forgotten, and Hojo unlocked its door and ran through its depths, ignoring the shadows that moved across the wall with him as he clicked on the small flashlight and held it out in front of him. Rows of tables and machines stretched in front of him, but he did not see anyone there. At the end of the hall was an exit door marked 'meeting room', and he stopped and took a deep breath before sauntering in. The unusual coldness of the room made Hojo shrink back; his palms dripped and his hands shook. "S-sir?" he croaked, looking around the dark room while trying to make out a shape.

"Hello Hojo." Came a voice from behind him, and he whirled around, lifting his hand in the air to strike. A figure caught his arm and put it down with immense strength. Then, the man chuckled and forced Hojo back into the room, turning on the light. Hojo nearly tripped as he reached behind him for the meeting table. "I do not recognize you. Are you...?" He began, sitting down at the table, but the figure nodded, stepping out from the shadows to sit across from Hojo. His narrowed yellow eyes shone from inside his head like a large snake's. "I despise unnecessary loudness," the man hissed, tapping his cane on the ground. "I apologize," Hojo replied, "but I have never seen you in person before. In all of our previous transactionsI have only had contact with your, um…"

"My ambassador."

"Yes. May I ask where he is?" Hojo asked, glancing around the room, half expecting the man in question to jump out of the shadows. Out of the corner of his eye, a shadow stirred and stretched, and he whirled around to see the silhouette inching towards him. The figure was in black, with deep red stripes down his arms and legs and a black helmet covering his face and head. As he entered the light of the room he winced and shivered. The yellow eyed man chuckled as the figure moved closer, trapping Hojo between the two of them. "Does, does he want to…?" Hojo trailed off, pointing to the standing black figure. The man at the head of the table shook his head. "He will stand. Now, Hojo, what is it that you wanted to speak to me about?" The man looked straight into Hojo's eyes. Hojo glanced away and breathed fast.

"The Investigation Bureau is onto us." Hojo snapped, and his breathing quickened once more. "Again?" the mysterious man chuckled. Hojo shook his head quickly, breathing harder. "It's different this time. They're building a case on me_. _They've caught onto the experiments and the intimidation. It's only a matter of time before they hear about..." Hojo gulped, glancing at his companions every few seconds. The yellow-eyed man rubbed his head and furrowed his eyebrows. "That is a problem," he murmured, looking up. "What do you want from me Hojo? Tell me quickly."

Hojo sighed in relief, but the held his breath, as the last bit of air was about to escape his lungs. Then he spoke again. "I need your help," he whispered. "I want you to get them off my tracks, and if I do happen to go to court I want you to defend me- if you do, I'll pay you back a million times over. All I ask is your support."

The old man looked up at the ceiling before his eyes settled on the black figure. "Who is in charge of the investigation?" He gnarled, formulating a plan in his mind. "The former Turk," Hojo whispered, and the man's gaze was directed back to him. "How did he leave the organization? I thought Shinra's exiting transportation of choice was body bag."

Hojo looked uncomfortable, and eyed the exit door before forcing his eyes back to the man in front of him. He shrugged. "I suppose it was a slip in security." He croaked, and the man beside him pursed his lips. "So this investigation has plumed from a 'slip in security'? The past returns to haunt, Hojo, if you allow it. And you will allow it."

A whimper escaped Hojo's throat as he thought of the enemies waiting for him in jail. "What do you mean I am 'going to allow it'?" Hojo snarled, looking at the ground. "I can't do anything about it!"

The man chortled in response. "You are not in the capacity to find the means to do something about it, Hojo. You never have been, and you never will. With my experience your ingenuous idiocy does not surprise me."

Hojo's shoulders fell, and he looked down at his hands in agitation.

"But I will do something about it."

Hojo looked up in amazement and saw that the man was smiling. Hojo gave himself a minute to process the information, and then stood up, bowing deeply. The man stared at him as he did so, tapping his cane.

"Thank you very, very much, sir. I am forever indebted to you." Hojo blubbered, chuckling and shaking at the same time. The man narrowed his eyes. "There's no taking that back," he sneered, and the scientist pursed his lips. Hojo pointed to the door and the figure stepped closer to him, who put his hand up. "I can show you out," Hojo elaborated but the man shook his head. "We have means." Hojo gulped and nodded, hesitating before placing the files on the table and hurrying to the door. He was stopped by the older man's cough.

"Hojo?" The man asked, and Hojo turned to look at him again. The black figure had moved beside the man, who was still sitting.

"Yes?"

"Your son."

Hojo looked back in confusion. "Yes, what about my son?"

"How is he?"

"How is Sephiroth?" Hojo whispered. The man nodded.

"He's in jail for involvement in a building scandal, rape charges, and his involvement with Shinra Electric," Hojo explained. "I have not spoken to him since he lived under my roof a few years ago."

"How long will he be in jail?"

"A very long time, sir."

The corners of the man's mouth turned up, but he did not smile. "Pity." He murmured.

And Hojo left, climbing the stairs back into the inhabited portion of Shinra. He entered the lobby and the lobbyist smiled at him. "Hello, doctor," she called and Hojo nodded, uncaring. "Rufus wants to talk to you." Hojo nodded again, gripping the flashlight in his hand. He had not meant to bring it up with him.

"What's with the flashlight?" the receptionist asked, and Hojo stopped, chuckling. "Oh, mice," he mumbled, and left.

If you enjoyed this story, continue onto its second installment, Kingdom Hearts Alternate II

s/10341750/1/Kingdom-Hearts-Alternate-2

Enjoy!


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